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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29920290">High Windows Cast Long Shadows</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_Monster/pseuds/L_Monster'>L_Monster</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Getting Together, Horny Teenagers, M/M, Porn With Plot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:55:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>40,963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29920290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_Monster/pseuds/L_Monster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico just so happened to be a shadow-dweller coated in perfect darkness as he stood still, biting on his lip and sucking on his own blood, melting into the umbra like black smoke, waiting. He glanced at his watch. Any second now.<br/>As if summoned by magic, the bathroom door opened and a young man walked in. Nico braced himself and became one with the darkness. The son of Hades practically lived in the shadows, camouflaging into them was child’s play. He wouldn’t be seen. </p><p>OR </p><p>Nico is a peeping Tom who likes to watch Will masturbating in the shower. Unbeknownst to him, Will is aware of it the entire time. When confronted, Nico flees and isn't seen for weeks. When he returns to Camp, he is in bad shape and is bound to the infirmary by Dionysus. Nico must now suffer the care of a certain healer who has been made personally responsible for his recovery. </p><p>A 'getting together' story with added porn. Because that's what horny teenagers do.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nico di Angelo &amp; Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>83</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>138</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've aged them up a bit. Will is 17, about to turn 18. Nico is a darker version of himself, very pervy and a bit angry, and he just turned 17.<br/>Sort of set after HoO.<br/>I'm just a sucker for angsty porn, whaaat.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>            Nico could taste blood from biting off some skin on his lower lip. He tapped his foot impatiently, his middle finger picking at his thumb’s cuticle hard enough to make him wince, but not enough to make him stop. Any second now, he thought.</p><p>            The room was spacious and warm, large enough to accommodate ten people, and was bathed in the honey-colored light of the afternoon sun that spilled in through the large windows, from high up on the walls. Rays of light fell diagonally into the room, illuminating the golden mosaic depictions of naked Apollo that adorned every inch of the floor. Tacky, Nico thought.</p><p>            The high windows – some eight feet above the ground, served the double purpose of permeating the room with an abundance of natural light, as well as affording privacy to those inside. Not all windows in the Apollo cabin were placed at this particular height – just the ones in the bathroom, and Nico knew this fact well enough, because… he was currently standing in a corner of the Apollo cabin bathroom. </p><p>            A third and final signature trait of high windows: they cast long shadows.</p><p>            For one who is accustomed to traveling within these blotches of penumbra, you can see the appeal. One would merely have to wait for when shadows are at their longest (and if possible – darkest), step into them with conviction, and whisper your desired destination. Darkness, one’s old friend, would see that one is promptly delivered into the nearest available (preferably long) shadow at the chosen point of disembarkation.    </p><p>            Nico had been disembarking at the Apollo cabin bathroom’s Shadow Travel Station with increasing frequency as of late.  </p><p>            It was, by far, the largest bathroom Nico had ever seen inside any of the cabins at Camp Half-Blood – not even Mr. D’s own private bathroom in the Big House was remotely this large. Nico would know, he had shadowed travelled into <em>all </em>bathrooms at Camp Half-Blood. The walls were lined with light sand-colored tiles, perhaps in an effort to resemble the walls of Ancient Greek temples. Wall braziers hung at symmetrical intervals, however the light coming in through the windows made them woefully unnecessary. In the middle of the room sat a built-in Jacuzzi made of cream-colored stone, like a giant basin, only empty. A marble toilet was tucked away behind a divider panel made of obscured glass in the corner farthest from where Nico was standing. Directly in front of him, about ten steps away was a large shower stall, taking up almost an entire wall. The glass doors had been spotlessly wiped, so much so that if it weren’t for the gold handle, Nico wouldn’t have been able to discern them.</p><p>            The corner of his preference was the left one by the door, directly under the high window facing west. At approximately 5 o’clock, when the sun chariot started its descent towards Honolulu Airport, Long Island was coated in egg-yolk yellow, and for a blissful 20 minutes, blazing rays of sunset drifted into the Apollo cabin bathroom through its large high windows, casting a massive and impossibly black shadow thick enough to hide any shadow-dwellers in almost perfect darkness.</p><p>            Nico just so happened to be a shadow-dweller coated in perfect darkness as he stood still, biting on his lip and sucking on his own blood, melting into the umbra like black smoke, waiting. He glanced at his watch. Any second now.</p><p>            As if summoned by magic, the bathroom door opened and a man walked in. Nico braced himself and became one with the darkness. The son of Hades practically lived in the shadows, camouflaging into them was child’s play. He wouldn’t be seen.</p><p>            The young man walked in with dauntless steps, the squishy sound of his crocs slapping against the tiled floor reverberated throughout the room. He walked around the Jacuzzi toward the shower stall, taking off his scrubs in the process and discarding them into the basin as if it had been a hamper. Nico’s eyes narrowed, as if trying to scan the young man from top to bottom.</p><p>            At age seventeen, Will Solace, son of Apollo, was as radiant and beguiling as ever, having reached the peak of his unearthly beauty – longish blonde curls that reached the end of his neck, sun-kissed skin that gleamed impossibly bright, lean muscles that pointed to a life full of activity.</p><p>            How Nico hated him. His confidence, his beauty, his nonchalance. He hated his warm smile and kind eyes. He hated his long, thin fingers and slender wrists.</p><p>He hated the way his breath hitched as Will’s pants slid down his hips, revealing a whole different set of muscles. The blonde kicked off his shoes and pants and walked into the shower stall, his back to Nico.</p><p>            As water began pouring down his head and shoulders, Nico’s eyes zeroed in on Will’s ass, the backs of his thighs, his strong calves and sculpted feet.</p><p>            How he hated him.</p><p>            Will reached out for the shampoo dispenser, turned around to face the door, by which Nico stood cast in shadows, and began massaging the substance into his hair. Foam formed instantly and started running down his body. His young, toned abs rippled with each flex of his arms. His cock was long and languid – but it wouldn’t be for long. Nico knew this for a fact.</p><p>It wasn’t long before Will started scrubbing his chest, his armpits, his abdomen, his pubes. Then his hand wrapped around his cock, quite innocently at first – just another part to scrub, then in earnest. His pumps were slow and absent-minded, he tilted back his head and opened his mouth, taking in a mouthful of water, then letting it dribble down his chin.</p><p>            Nico could feel himself getting hard now. He palmed the front of his pants in both excitement and shame, silently chastising himself for reacting to the scene with such mundane compliance – yet he was unable to look away. The son of Hades could be many things, but he was never one to look away.</p><p>            How he hated him. Will Solace with his perfect cock. Perfectly pink, perfectly erect. Nico’s own cock curved slightly around the middle, and had a habit of pointing downwards even when hard as a rock. Will’s cock was straight as an arrow – straight, just like himself.</p><p>Nico wondered if anyone had ever sucked his perfectly straight dick before. It was easy to ignore the shame when he got hard, and now that he was, he could absolutely picture himself taking Will’s cock in his mouth, all the way in and until he gagged. The thought sent ripples down his back.</p><p>            Will’s pumps quickened, drawing a soft moan from his parted lips, then he stopped.</p><p>He turned around once more and reached for another squirt of soap, which he proceeded to smear down his legs. As he bent over, Nico was awarded a perfect view of his ass, a strip of pink between creamy white cheeks. The tone darkened the closer it got to his asshole, but Nico could tell it was still pink, the motherfucker and his perfectly pink asshole.</p><p>            As Will reached his calves, his balls were visible from between his legs and Nico suppressed a moan. He conjured up the sound of balls slapping against skin from memory, countless hours of watching porn in his Underworld laptop had granted him enough material to space out into sweet, wanton oblivion whenever he felt like it.</p><p>            But Will Solace’s live show was better than any video he had ever watched.</p><p>            When Will stood back up, his cock was still hard – harder in fact than before, and now that he was all squeaky clean, he seemed to return his full attention to it.</p><p>            With a long, hard stroke, he turned slightly, his profile to Nico. With his left hand perched on the wall for balance, his chin down, he began pumping himself in earnest.</p><p>            Water dribbled down his hair, his long locks smeared against his face – but Nico could see the profile of his long, pointy nose and his parted lips. Then Will suddenly moaned so loudly Nico almost jumped. He tilted his head back and water hit directly against his Adam’s apple. Steam had begun to blur the glass door of the shower stall, but Nico didn’t need to see what his imagination could conjure up without a problem.</p><p>            He saw it all in his mind as if he were there, in that shower stall with stupid Will Solace and his perfect erection.</p><p>            He imagined the tip of Will’s cock growing plump and dark. He imagined how Will cupped his balls with his left hand as he tugged and squeezed his cock with his right. Nico could picture himself kneeling down in front of him, his hands hooked behind Will’s thighs, his mouth open, ready to take in his essence when he came.</p><p>            Will moaned through gritted teeth – Nico could hear it clearly thanks to the room’s perfect acoustics, perks of being in an Apollonian bathroom.</p><p>            Will’s movements became more and more erratic with every passing second. When the sound of slapping skin reached Nico’s ears, he almost pulled out his own cock and started jerking off.</p><p>            Will remained in the same position, his profile to Nico, a hand on the wall, but his right arm moved so fast Nico could see his muscles tensing across his back. Will’s breathing escalated quickly, and soon enough he was panting.</p><p>            “Take it,” Will hissed, the words perfectly reaching Nico’s ears. Solace wasn’t much of a talker when he jerked off, except for the odd command directed at nothing in particular that never failed to send a jolt of electricity down Nico’s cock.</p><p>            He wished, oh how he wished, those words were directed at him.</p><p>            Nico palmed his infernal erection slowly, as if willing himself to calm down.</p><p>            How he longed he could just emerge from the shadows, walk the ten steps to the shower stall and join Will Solace in the water. He wouldn’t even take off his clothes, he would simply reach out, grab him by the arm and turn him around, taking his cock in his hand and driving it into his mouth. He could picture his tongue rolling around Will’s tip, the salty taste of pre-cum on his lips.</p><p>            As if on cue, Will Solace let out surprised gasp followed by a low grumble that signaled his orgasm. And in Nico’s mind, Will’s semen filled his mouth.</p><p>            When Will walked out of the shower in blissful satisfaction, Nico couldn’t bring himself to hate him any longer. Will’s post orgasm beauty always took Nico by surprise, conjuring up feelings he didn’t know he was capable of. And each time he told himself it would be the last.</p><p>He had been telling himself that for weeks.</p><p>            He watched in a daze as Will wrapped a towel around his waist and headed for the door.</p><p>            In the shadows, Nico had to restrain himself from reaching out a hand. If only he could graze Will’s skin with the tip of his unworthy fingers – but no.</p><p>            Because Will was straight and Nico was a sickening Peeping Tom, and the radiant son of the God of the Sun wouldn’t even glance in the direction of the shadows that surrounded a scion of the Underworld.</p><p>            It had been so with Percy, and it would remain so with Will. And Nico would be alone forever, shadow travelling into bathrooms and masturbating in the darkness of his cabin.</p><p>            When Will opened the door to walk out, he stopped.</p><p>            “Just because I can’t see you, doesn’t mean I can’t feel you,” he whispered.</p><p>            Nico froze, his eyes widening.</p><p>            “Son of Hades,” Will added. The words were heavy and slow, like honey on a cold day, but there was no resentment in them, which Nico failed to register. His blood turned icy in his veins, and before Will could walk out of the bathroom or add another word, Nico vanished into the shadows.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. WILL SOLACE</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Will Solace has a problem. A big, hard problem.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had a fantastic suggestion from a reader, and it's inspired me to turn this into a multi-chapter. Sorry if this one isn't as dark as the first, I'm a comedy writer with a dirty mind, so even my naughtiest works tend to veer toward humor.<br/>In this story, Nico and Will never fought together in the battle against Gaia, so they never started dating.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>WILL SOLACE</p><p> </p><p>            Will’s fingernails left angry red marks across his cheek as he scratched at his face, swallowing a moan and writhing in pleasure while tangling his legs between the sheets of his bed. It was a risk – jerking off in bed, as his siblings might return to the cabin any second. But It had been two weeks since Will had last seen Nico di Angelo – if <em>seen</em> were even the right way to describe a peeping Tom hiding in the shadows of the bathroom, watching you shower. Tension had relentlessly been building on his shoulders and his nether regions ever since, and it had impossible to concentrate on anything else. Will needed to cum, and he needed to cum now.  </p><p>            And to think that only a few months ago he’d been a good, innocent head counselor, with no real experience in the art of carnal satisfaction. Sure, he’d had the odd wank every now and again, ever since he’d discovered his hard-little pecker all those years ago, but he now realized, as he sucked hard on his index finger while pulling furiously at his cock, that in the space of a few months, he had become a serial, semi-professional, full-time masturbator.  </p><p>            And it was all because of that little pervert. (Will wasn’t one to swear, but many things had changed in the past few months.) All because of him – his secret voyeur, the son of Hades. Nico di Angelo. Just thinking his name made Will’s bloodstream ripple with a mixture of haphazard feelings. Nico-peeping-di-Angelo, with his eternally brooding eyes, his long black hair, his skinny jeans… his thin mouth, his pale fingers…</p><p>            He looked down at his cock, hot and red and trapped in his firm grasp, a drop of pearly white liquid spilling out of the slit. His cock had changed over the years too, had grown into itself, and somehow, he had failed to notice until very recently. When he was little, he used to think of it as a funny little thing dangling between his legs, with no particular function other than hosing out wee. Now, as he squeezed up and down the slippery shaft, he realized he had woefully underestimated it all his life. It felt heavy in his hand, long and straight, like an actual weapon. He liked to watch himself masturbate now, the look of the angry head of his shaft pulsating in his grasp. He loved the sounds his wrists made when they collided with the base, and the feel of the popping veins along its length. He liked to tug at his testicles when he felt the pressure mounting, he loved sucking on his fingers, twirling his tongue around the tips. He loved to fantasize about what it would feel like to have someone else do all the work for him, about how thin lips would feel as they wrapped around his length.</p><p>            Ever since realizing he had a secret stalker, Will loved to imagine someone’s eyes on him, poring over him from a distance, and for the first few weeks, that had been enough. But, as it is, he’d started longing for more. Perhaps he’d gotten used to being watched, and he now needed more hands-on forms of stimulation – he’d started picturing himself doing all sorts of things. He could imagine a stranger’s hands running over his body, then biting at his hips, head bobbing up and down as Will held onto their hair, their dark, long hair, pushing and pulling until he came.</p><p>            What a little pervert he’d turned out to be, fantasizing about sex with boys, wanting to be seen, doing the unthinkable.</p><p>            It was all because of him!</p><p>            Two months ago, after one of his first wanks with a live audience, Will had tasted his own semen out of curiosity, and had been startled to realize it didn’t repulse him. He’d actually wondered if every man’s semen tasted similar. It was a true testament to how much Will Solace had changed in the past few months that he could go around camp being friendly and saying hello to other campers as he crossed paths with them, while silently wondering what their cum would taste like.</p><p>            He might have decided he was gay right then and there.</p><p>            Strangely enough, it hadn’t even crossed his mind at that moment.</p><p>            Not even when he had first sensed that lingering presence around him while he took a shower all those months ago, or the many times after, which he started looking forward to, with its irrevocable masculinity, its power and darkness and vigor, clearly male. Not when he caught himself thinking of rough hands and square jaws and erect shafts while he masturbated in the shower. Not when he started looking forward to feeling that male presence in the bathroom, which turned him on immensely. No, it had been the day he’d been lounging on a lawn chair on the wraparound porch of the Big House, when Nico di Angelo walked out the front door, escorted by Mr. D. who patted him on the back as he exited, and Will wondered what the son of Hades’ semen would taste like. When their glances met for the briefest moment, and Nico took a sharp intake of breath, his eyes widening – that had been the paradigm-shifting moment when Will realized three pivotal facts: the identity of his secret observer, his own sexual orientation, and his thirst for Nico di Angelo.  </p><p>            How had it all come down to this? How had Will ended up in this position – tangled in his bed sheets, masturbating in the middle of the afternoon, unable to take a shower without getting instantly hard. He tried to focus on the cock in his hands, wondering if his siblings would suddenly return to the cabin and catch him in the act.</p><p>            It was all because of him. From the moment Will had recognized him as his very own peeping Tom, Di Angelo’s dark presence, his lust, his sheer daring – all these things kept Will taking showers at sunset and making him feel alive, constantly exhilarated, continually stimulated, looking forward to it. Just knowing that someone desired him enough to sneak into the shadows to watch him naked, because it couldn’t be anything other than desire, was simply intoxicating.</p><p>            Until he blew it.</p><p>            It had been two whole weeks since Will made the mistake of acknowledging the presence of the son of Hades in the shadows in the corner of the room. <em>It couldn’t be helped</em>, he constantly reasoned with himself. <em>I needed him to know. I needed him to know that I knew. </em></p><p>            Why?</p><p>            Perhaps because of the mind-blowing, heart-stopping orgasm he’d just had while showering, amplified by the thought of putting on a show for his secret admirer.</p><p>            Perhaps due to a hitherto unbeknownst necessity to be acknowledged by his keen powers of deduction – <em>I know who you are, ‘cause I’m smart that way.</em></p><p>Perhaps Will had started to harbor the hope that there might be more to their nonexistent relationship than voyeuristic-exhibitionist behavior, maybe a date?</p><p>            Perhaps his own father, the god Apollo, had finally decided to intervene, tired of his son going solo in a place which displayed a naked mosaic of himself – which surely, he found to be an aphrodisiac at the very least, and he’d taken their lack of contact a personal insult, prompting Will to whisper those fateful words.</p><p>            <em>Just because I don’t see you, doesn’t mean I don’t feel you. Son of Hades. </em></p><p> Whatever the reason, the Nemean cat was out of the bag, and the son of Hades hadn’t been spotted at Camp for over 14 days.</p><p>            Suddenly Will didn’t feel like climaxing anymore. His pumps weren’t doing it for him, in fact, he’d started to get more pain than pleasure out of his attentions. His cock began losing its girth, and it started to feel like a badly-filled bag of sand, heavy in all the wrong places. Will groaned in frustration.</p><p>            He hadn’t been able to ejaculate in over 14 days.</p><p>            And it was all because of him!</p><p>            He’d been trying to masturbate in increasingly strange places as of late – anything to get him the release he needed. He’d tried the infirmary, the forest, the lake, the Big House, Rachel Dare’s oracular cavern – but nothing had worked. He simply couldn’t seem to cum without the knowledge of being watched. He’d been secretly hoping the possibility of his siblings walking back into the cabin would give him the edge he needed. No such luck.</p><p>            Gritting his teeth, Will put his soft cock back in his pants and stood up, wondering if he’d still be able to shoot a few arrows at the archery field before it got too dark and he had to go take over the night shift at the infirmary.</p><p>            He walked outside, the balmy, strawberry-scented breeze caressing his face, doing nothing to improve his foul, foul mood.</p><p>            Having decided to stop by the dining pavilion for a quick bite instead of getting some archery practice, Will sat alone at the Apollo table, with Austin still teaching the music class and Kayla finishing off her shift at the infirmary, he had nothing to distract him from staring at the empty table on the other side of the pavilion – the Hades table. Nico di Angelo never seemed to join them at meals. Perhaps he avoided peak hours?</p><p>            Will wondered how the son of Hades looked when he ate. He was very thin, and there was a delicate air to his movements, completely at odds with the masculinity he sometimes radiated when he walked. Taking an absent-minded bite of his sandwich, Will wondered what Nico di Angelo could possibly see in him. Admittedly, he knew he was handsome – all demigods were on the attractive side one way or another, especially children of the sun god, the most beautiful of all gods (Apollo’s words, not his). But beauty lost its power in the face of normalcy, and when everyone was good-looking, nobody really stood out. That is how Will reasoned it anyway. So there had to be something else that had attracted the son of all shadows to plain, boring Will Solace, the one son of Apollo who sucked at archery and couldn’t sing, the head counselor who hadn’t even realized he was gay until thoughts of eating semen smacked him in the face. The healer whose hands would grow calloused if he didn’t stop jerking off several times a day.</p><p>            He was a real catch, he was.</p><p>            Feeling more depressed than ever, Will dragged his feet towards the infirmary, where he found his sister Kayla finishing off on some paperwork.</p><p>            “Finally,” she said without looking up from a small stack of rice paper leaflets. “I’m starving!”</p><p>            “Brought you a muffin,” Will replied, tossing a small paper bag to his sister, who caught it in midair and blew him a kiss.    </p><p>            “You’re the best,” she said, taking a bite and returning to her paperwork.</p><p>            “What else is new,” he said wearily as he pulled on his scrubs.</p><p>            “I’m almost done with these,” Kayla mumbled, her voice muffled over a mouthful of muffin. “I’ve already finished taking this week’s inventory, it’s your turn to redress the beds. Austin said to use the ones with the pink flowery pattern – the grey ones are mismatched.”</p><p>            Will looked around and realized some of the beds sported pillowcases of a different color. He wouldn’t have noticed had Kayla not pointed it out.</p><p>            “Looking forward to it,” Will said through gritted teeth.</p><p>            “I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, William,” she said in a song-song voice that failed to mask her annoyance. “I’ve been here all day and my patience has worn out.”</p><p>            “Sure,” he replied without even meaning to sound so acid.</p><p>            Kayla sighed loudly. Looking away from her paperwork, she put her pen down and placed her elbows on the desk.</p><p>            “You’ve been in a pretty pissy mood these last few days. Something the matter?” she asked, taking more measured bites of muffin.</p><p>            Will forced a smile. This was not a conversation he was going to have with his half-sister. “Nah,” he said, trying to sound lighthearted. “Bored, tired.”</p><p>            “Girl trouble?” she asked, her eyes flashing. “Boy trouble?”</p><p>            Will stiffened, his Asclepius Stethoscope™ hanging in midair as he froze in the process of placing it over his neck.</p><p>            “N-No, wait, what?” he asked, incredulously.</p><p>            “Whatever man,” she laughed, having finished her muffin, she stood up and stretched her arms over her head. “Just change the damn sheets or Austin won’t let us hear the end of it.” With that, Kayla put on her coat and walked out of the infirmary, leaving Will alone and rattled.</p><p>            He hadn’t even thought about how other people would view him if they knew he was gay. He figured nobody would care, not Greek demigods, whose godly parents had probably engaged in some sort of same-sex activity across the millennia. It seemed very few of them could actually deny these claims – Artemis, Athena and Hestia, for once, the maiden goddesses. But the rest? Sure, some of them might have tried to keep it under wraps, while others were a lot more thick-skinned, like Zeus, who still had Ganymede servicing him in Mount Olympus, Poseidon, who had been smitten with Pelops once he’d been glued back together, and of course, <em>dad</em>, who was probably the most flamboyantly bisexual being in existence. The gods were simply unconcerned about sexual orientation, regardless of which way it pointed, and it was the same with their demigod children.</p><p>            Will was aware of a few gay couples in Camp Half-Blood. In fact, he’d long heard the rumor about Nico di Angelo having had a crush on Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon who’d left Camp a few years back. He’d never really pondered the significance of this discovery until very, very recently. He’d decided if he ever saw Percy Jackson again, he’d study him at length. Was that Nico’s type after all? Dark-haired, green-eyed, athletic, oblivious?</p><p>            Will wasn’t really any of those things.</p><p>            He’d peeled the mismatched grey sheets off the first bed and started dressing it with the pink floral-patterned ones when he heard a commotion outside the infirmary, the racket getting closer and closer.</p><p>            Before he even reached the desk by the entrance, the door blew open with a godly grape-scented gust of wind, and in marched Dionysus, holding a sickly-looking Nico di Angelo in place by the scruff of his shirt.</p><p>            “I said I’m fine! I don’t need –“ Nico was saying, but his mouth went slack the moment his eyes fell on Will. His glance was smoldering, Will was so taken aback by the look of utter hatred that di Angelo was directing his way that he took an involuntary step back.</p><p>            “Solace,” said the god with a yawn, “this one’s been doing long-distance shadow traveling again and he’s about to phase into nothingness, if he doesn’t get some… prompt healing or, whatever it is you do here.” He deposited Nico on the bed as if he had been a kitten.</p><p>            Nico stood back up almost immediately, but Dionysus snapped his fingers and Nico fell onto the bed as if pressed down by an invisible, giant, wine-glass-shaped paper weight. Nico fought against the invisible force to no avail, he didn’t seem to be able to move his body from the neck down.</p><p>            “Dionysus!” Nico hissed through gritted teeth, his voice weak and strained “Let me go! I’ll return to Hades, I can heal back on my own just fine!”</p><p>            “One more shadow trip and you <em>will</em> end up in Hades, permanently. I think your father would have something to say if I let you die from something as stupid as shadow-travelling.”</p><p>            “So heal me! You’re a god! Snap your godly fingers and heal me back!” as he said the last word, he phased into a semi-transparent version of himself, it lasted only a second but it was enough to raise the hairs on the back of Will’s neck.</p><p>            “My godly powers are better suited to attend to more important, urgent matters. Healing demigods, that’s <em>his</em> job, not mine,” he said, pointing a large, purple finger at Will. Nico ‘s face was curtained by his disheveled mop of black hair, but his eyes burned into him, and Will felt himself start to blush.</p><p>            “Solace,” the god continued. “Make sure this one isn’t discharged until he is properly healed.” He snapped his fingers a second time and a gust of grape-flavored wind undulated throughout the room with such force Will could actually see it. “I have bound him to the infirmary, he won’t be able to leave until his discharge papers are signed, personally, by you.” With that, the god disappeared with a puff of purple smoke.</p><p>            Will stared at the spot where Dionysus had previously stood for what felt like hours. Grudgingly, very slowly he turned to the patient bound to the bed with the pink-patterned sheets. Nico di Angelo glared daggers at him with such ferocity that had his medical instincts not kicked in, he would have made for the door and ran.</p><p>            “Okay,” Will whispered, trying to ignore the hatred radiating from the dark-haired demigod. “Gatorade.”  </p><p>             </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Drachma for your thoughts?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. NICO DI ANGELO</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nico's first day at the infirmary and he basically goes through all stages of grief.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I honestly have no excuses for this monstrosity of a chapter. I'd never written 14 pages of anything before, so I hope you all enjoy, my lovely lovely readers. I swear to all the gods, I don't know how this happened, but I feel like I went through all the feelings in the world just writing this, cause it's got eeeverything, and I mean everything in there.<br/>I can't say I know how many more chapters I can type out at this rate, but I like this story and I like where this is going.<br/>Anyways, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>NICO DI ANGELO</p><p> </p><p>            Nico didn’t know how long it had been since Dionysus had bound him to the bed, but it felt like an eternity; time was impossible to judge when you found yourself slowly disintegrating into nothingness.</p><p>            Will Solace disappeared and reappeared into Nico’s periphery time and time again, and each time his idiotic mop of blonde hair bobbed in his direction, Nico forced himself to look away. What had he been reduced to, not being able to even glance at the boy that had captivated his attention for the past two months.</p><p>            As Solace moved about the infirmary, Nico felt himself drifting into a heavy sleep, against which he fought with every bit of strength he had left. Unfortunately, as the seconds ticked by, he found it more and more difficult to keep his bearings. He started to forget what felt like important bits of information. Who he was. Where he was. When he was. The second his head had landed on the soft pillow of the infirmary bed, he had felt completely drained, both physically and emotionally.  </p><p>            With his exhaustion, his rage had also subsided somewhat.</p><p>            A more rational part of Nico di Angelo argued that the ridiculous demigod tumbling about the infirmary wasn’t to blame for the embarrassing situation in which they currently found themselves.</p><p>            He only had himself to blame for that one. He rolled his eyes at the irony of it all – the absurdity of the situation.</p><p>            His own cock had gotten him into trouble yet again, there was no way around that fact.</p><p>            He might have even laughed, phasing out with each humorless cackle. Why did he have to be such an insufferable, horny pervert of all things?</p><p>            But then there was that other part of him, the one currently at the wheel, the one that refused to take the blame for the metaphorical car crash that was his life at the moment. That righteous part of Nico knew only too well that it had <em>all</em> been Solace’s fault.</p><p>            Under different circumstances, he would have summoned all the ghosts gliding underneath the Earth’s crust directly below Camp and ordered them to cash in his revenge and shred the son of Apollo to pieces. However, at this point, he figured he didn’t have the strength to summon a single bone.</p><p>            Solace had recognized him – this much he remembered. He’d called him out as he stood coated in shadows, he had known his identity all along, an idea so terrifying that Nico had found himself shadow travelling into the Underworld by accident, out of sheer shock.</p><p>            Not knowing where to go, not knowing what to do, he roamed the Underworld for days, trying to pick a fight. He had a faint memory of that. He might have spent a few days in his chambers, dwelling in his own misery and listening to music. He’d ended up going to see his dog. Possibly. He couldn’t quite remember. That might have been another time. Then there had been his father. They’d had a fight. Nico had shadow traveled away. That probably hadn’t been a good idea. He’d blatantly abused his quota of shadow travels over the past few months – sneaking into the Apollo cabin bathroom every couple of days. No, he wouldn’t think of that now. Or ever. He wouldn’t think of that ever again. He felt himself growing angrier at the thought.  </p><p>            How had he known?</p><p>            Surely, he couldn’t have seen him, he had said so himself. Then how? Could he have smelled him? Nico was a ghostly version of a Greek demigod, he carried no scent, he moved so silently Percy had once joked he’d have to get Nico a bell.</p><p>            Will Solace seemed to have spoken, Nico realized with a jerk. The hateful idiot who had landed them in this mess. The blonde was standing before him, but Nico wasn’t going to acknowledge his existence, not now, not ever again. As far as Nico was concerned, Solace wasn’t a sentient being, he was a piece of meat – meat and bones and blood and nothing else. Generic pornography. Just another blonde with a somewhat good-looking dick. And Nico would not recognize his humanity.</p><p>            What had he ever done to have earned himself this kind of punishment? Surely nothing he had done in the past few months. That had been purely hormonal. A string of rash decisions, all taken by his smaller head. The Fates must acknowledge this much.</p><p>            As his head (his main head) began to throb, and his entire body shivered with exhaustion, Nico knew he had a few precious seconds before he drifted into unconsciousness. He decided that Will Solace was not a person. He couldn’t afford to see him as one.</p><p>            Then, what was that creature that was taking careful steps in his direction? One. Stop. Two. Stop. A person, most definitely, Nico reasoned, since it seemed to only possess one head. Or were there two? He tried to rub his eyes but his arms wouldn’t work. The figure was tall and slender. Blurry. Familiar. He seemed to be holding something. Nico squinted, trying to force his eyes to focus, an almost impossible feat, as his eyelids seemed to weigh about a ton each. He caught a glimpse of a large Styrofoam cup, fingers bending a bright yellow straw in Nico’s direction.</p><p>            He tried to swat him away, but his arms were jelly.</p><p>            Nico felt shadows surrounding him, seeping into him and into the comfortable bed on which he lay. He could feel himself turning to smoke. He glanced down with half-lidded eyes and found he could see through his body, he could discern the pink flowery pattern of the bed sheets.</p><p>            “Y – need – is,” a voice commanded from a million miles away.</p><p>            Nico tried to shake his head with all the strength he had left, but he only managed to rest his cheek on his right shoulder.</p><p>            Sleep, or was it death, was coming for him. He would have welcomed death had it not entailed seeing his father again much sooner than anticipated. That might have been the one thing that kept him alive. </p><p>            That and a sudden gentle touch, a warm hand on his cheek. Nico wanted to bite it, but he only managed to snarl and mumble something in return. He hoped he had sounded threatening at the very least. He still couldn’t move his arms or legs, whether because of magic of lack of strength, Nico didn’t know. Another hand found the back of Nico’s head, and he suddenly felt himself lifted into an almost sitting position.</p><p>            He smelled something – flowery. No. Coconutty.</p><p>            Where was he?</p><p>            Brazil?</p><p>            Nico had been to Brazil once. He’d escorted Persephone to Carnaval that one time.</p><p>            Or had it been Mardi Gras in New Orleans? Nico had met a boy with the head of a dog there.</p><p>            Something entered his mouth.</p><p>            Wow.</p><p>            That was unexpectedly invasive.</p><p>            Well, could have been worse.</p><p>            Could have been his ass. </p><p>            He might have laughed out loud.</p><p>            Yep, he had laughed, and spilled cold liquid on his shirt.</p><p>            The cold liquid seemed to be running down his throat as well. It tasted great. What the hell was it? A fleeting sense of strength returned to his body.</p><p>            He opened his eyes.</p><p>            Apollo stood before him. Nico gasped. Perhaps he also shrieked, because Apollo jerked away from him.</p><p>            No. Not Apollo.</p><p>            Apollo wasn’t this effortlessly beautiful.</p><p>            Apollo was too obvious in his efforts to look good.</p><p>            Blue eyes stared at him in concern. The electric blue orbs were drinking him in, taking every inch of his face. A finger traced his chin, wiping away what Nico hoped wasn’t drool. He swallowed more of the delicious orange flavored liquid until he could feel his arms and legs, and he found the strength to tear his eyes away from those worried pools of blue.</p><p>            “Enough,” he heard himself whisper, and gently pushed the hands away.</p><p>            “For now,” a soft voice replied. Then the mattress creaked and bounced back. He thought he heard music from somewhere. A soft chant. His back hit the bed. Nico closed his eyes and knew no more.</p><p>           </p><p>            When he opened his eyes, sheer light blinded him. He groaned and threw an arm over his face. Sunlight drifted into the room and it was <em>everywhere.</em></p><p>This couldn’t have been the Underworld. Or his cabin. So, where the hell was he?</p><p>            “You’re awake,” came a voice from a short distance away. Will Solace was walking in his direction. The realization hit Nico hard in the gut – like waking up with a cruel hangover after a night of heavy drinking. Nico had had quite a few of those in the Underworld. It all came crashing down on him, and in retrospect, it wouldn’t have been so bad if he had died the night before.</p><p>            He did the brave thing and forced himself back to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>            The second time he woke up, Will Solace was nowhere to be seen. The room was cast in orange light. It must be late afternoon, Nico thought.</p><p>            A tall African American boy looked up from his seat by the door. He peeled off his headphones and took his feet off the table.</p><p>            “Hey, there. Di Angelo, right? I’m Austin Lake,” he said cheerfully. He looked friendly enough, if somewhat chatty. He walked toward Nico, grabbing a stethoscope that hung from the wall. When he reached his bedside, he made a grab for Nico’s wrist, but Nico snatched it away.</p><p>            “Whoah there. I need to check your pulse. My hands are warm, promise.”</p><p>            Nico frowned distastefully. He did not like people touching him.</p><p>            “I’m fine. My pulse is fine,” he said almost protectively, as if his pulse were something precious that must be guarded at all costs. His voice was hoarse, he realized, and his mouth tasted like ash.</p><p>            “I’m afraid I’ll be the judge of that. Come on, suck it up.”</p><p>            Nico calculated his odds if he were to fight this man in his present condition. The odds were not good. Grudgingly, he offered his arm to Austin Lake and looked away.</p><p>            “Much improved,” said Austin, and he proceeded to listen to Nico’s heart and check his temperature, much to Nico’s chagrin. “You sons of Hades are made of some solid stuff.”</p><p>            “I am the only son of Hades,” Nico responded unenthusiastically, like he needed the reminder.</p><p>            “Yeah, so I’ve heard. Alright, you’re officially out of danger. You had us spooked there for a bit.” He returned the stethoscope to the hook on the wall and pulled at a chord that was dangling by the window. Nico heard the distant chime of a bell.</p><p>            “How long have I been out?” he asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.</p><p>            Austin whistled and shook his head, clearly impressed.</p><p>            “Two solid days, my man,” he replied. “We’ve been taking turns looking after you. No need to fret, you were a dream. The hard part was getting some liquid into you, but once we figured that one out –“ he pointed to an IV inserted into Nico’s arm, which he hadn’t noticed before. “Saline and diluted nectar. Will’s been experimenting with some mortal methods. We had to come up with something, since we couldn’t wake you. And good thing you woke up too, if you hadn’t done so by tonight, we would’ve had to insert a catheter into your bladder. I’m guessing you need to take a giant leak right about now, am I right?” he said as he unhooked the IV from Nico’s arm.  </p><p>            The information overload took time to sink in, Nico had to shake his head as if to set his thoughts in order. Feeling had returned to his limbs, his neck was sore, his wrist was on fire, his esophagus felt like it was lined with sand. And yes, he needed to take a massive leak, stat.</p><p>            “Bathroom’s at the end of the room,” said Austin, pointing to a door by the last cot.</p><p>            Nico stood up on wobbly legs, he was wearing his own clothes, he realized, which were grimy and smelled of all different kinds of nameless things. Austin offered him a hand to stabilize him, but Nico refused. He made his shaky way toward the bathroom and took the longest leak of his life.</p><p>            Last night had possibly been one of the worst nights of his existence, and he’d had more than a handful of those. As he emptied his bladder, he racked his brain to remember what exactly had transpired that night he’d shadow travelled back into the over world.</p><p>            There had been that fight with his father, but the details evaded him. He’d reappeared back in Manhattan. He had recognized his surroundings instantly – just outside Percy Jackson’s apartment building. He hadn’t even meant to go there; the decision had been made by his subconscious.</p><p>            He remembered feeling anguish. Despair. Physical pain. An overwhelming need to retch his guts out, a longing for sweet oblivion. He remembered his hands starting to become transparent. Fear of death. Regret. Shame. His despondency might have been strong enough to conjure apparitions, because next thing he knew, a winged figure had materialized out of nowhere. Alecto, the Fury, probably at his father’s command, Nico realized now, grabbed him by the waist and took to the sky. He might have passed out. When he came back into consciousness, he’d been unceremoniously dropped on the front lawn of the Big House. He remembered Dionysus stomping out the main door clad in his grape-patterned purple dressing gown and exchanging a few words with the Fury in Ancient Greek. Of the rest of the evening, he needed no reminder.</p><p>            With his bladder blissfully empty, Nico took some time to assess his current situation.</p><p>            He’d been out for two whole days, and Austin had declared him out of danger, which entailed a couple of things: One, he wasn’t going to die, which meant he could return to his cabin and plan his… what? Escape? Suicide? Mass murder? He couldn’t rule any of those out. He’d considered becoming a drifter for the foreseeable future. Or open a recording studio with the boatman Charon, they’d discussed this in the past. There was also the possibility of visiting his sister Hazel in Camp Jupiter, where she was now Centurion. One thing he knew for sure, he had to get away from Camp Half-Blood. Too many bad memories.</p><p>            As he glanced at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, Nico took in his disheveled appearance – his sunken eyes, rimmed with dark circles, his gauntness, his pale complexion bordering on translucency. His hair was a matted mess, a black curtain framing his cadaveric face. If he did in fact open a recording studio, he’d make a point to relocate to Norway and cater exclusively to black metal bands, he’d fit right in. </p><p>            He took a deep breath and grabbed the edges of the porcelain sink, readying himself for the real thinker. Time to face the music. Trapped as he currently was in the infirmary managed by the members of the Apollo cabin, what was he going to do about Will Solace?</p><p>            Without even trying to, he began conjuring up images of the son of Apollo. Fractured memories appeared in his mind’s eye. Solace stuffing hotdogs into his mouth during that competition in the Dining Pavilion. Solace losing his balance on the canoe and falling into the lake. Solace taking off his clothes. Solace under the spray of the shower. Solace panting and moaning as he pumped his dick dry. Solace stopping by the door and speaking into the shadows. Solace with his Styrofoam cup.</p><p>            Nico’s breath caught in his throat. An overwhelming cascade of feelings threatened to overcome him. He had the vague memory of a gentle hand on his cheek. He cupped his face and closed his eyes, bending over the sink and almost puking his guts out.</p><p>            Nico had violated the most basic informal rule of human decency, had transgressed on another human being’s privacy. He’d felt powerful and unstoppable as he stepped all over Will Solace’s dignity. And regardless of it all, Will Solace had lowered himself to lay his untarnished fingers on Nico’s undeserving face. He suddenly felt unsteady on his feet, shame threatening to dismount him off his legs.</p><p>            If Solace didn’t hate him now, Nico sure as hell did.</p><p>            But it didn’t matter.</p><p>            None of it mattered, since he’d be gone before the sun rose in the morning. With any luck, he’d be out of the infirmary before the next shift change and Nico would never have to face those blue eyes ever again.</p><p>            A pang of pain stabbed him somewhere, but Nico was used to those only too well.</p><p>            His plans were thwarted the second he stepped out of the bathroom, when his eyes landed on Will Solace, a smile on his face and a dish of sandwiches in his hands, talking to Austin like it had been any fucking Sunday afternoon. Nico wobbled on his feet and landed face-first on the floor.</p><p>            The Apollo siblings rushed to his side, lifting him up and dragging him back to bed. Nico heard his own muffled voice repeating the same words like a mantra. <em>I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine!</em></p><p>“He needs food, Will,” Austin said from Nico’s right.</p><p>            “Well, unless he wants to eat off the floor, we need to get a new batch of sandwiches,” said Will from his left.</p><p>            Nico felt himself being plopped back on the bed. That trip to the bathroom had all but drained him, he felt like couldn’t even scratch his nose if he wanted to. He wasn’t sleepy, this wasn’t that kind of tiredness. He felt unsubstantial.</p><p>            “I’ll get a dryad,” said Austin, rushing out of the infirmary and leaving Nico alone with the bane of his existence.</p><p>            A few minutes went by in silence while Will busied himself around, putting on his scrubs and collecting his stethoscope, gathering some supplies and checking his wristwatch.</p><p>            When Will finally made his way back to Nico’s bedside, it was he who broke the silence.</p><p>            “You’ll need to eat this,” he said, offering a tiny square of ambrosia, barely the size of a hazelnut. Nico glared at him, as if he suspected him from trying to poison him. But Will wouldn’t budge. His right hand, palm up, remained steady, his gaze unrelenting. Nico wondered if he had been hallucinating, because he could clearly discern a blush starting to creep up Will Solace’s neck and cheeks. He was starting to resemble an albino toddler who’d spent way too much time outside on a sunny day.</p><p>            For a second there, Nico thought he’d take him up on the silent challenge, and hold his gaze until one of them gave up and looked away. But a wiser voice in his head chastised him and he relented. Surprisingly, his hand was able to reach out just fine, taking the square of ambrosia and popping it into his mouth, careful to avoid touching the blonde’s hand.</p><p>            Will had the gall to smile.</p><p>            Nico frowned, wishing he could vaporize living souls on command.  </p><p>            “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Will said with a satisfied grin on his stupid face.</p><p>            Nico chewed slowly, making a point to show his annoyance with every dawdling contraction of his jaw.</p><p>            Will looked away quickly and Nico smirked.</p><p>            Then the blonde conjured up a chair out of what seemed like thin air and took a seat right by Nico’s bedside. He rested his elbows on his knees, his head hanging low. Nico braced himself for what he feared was to come, but Solace did not speak. He didn’t speak for a long time, which had started to make Nico feel squeamish. He expected a confrontation. He expected a fight.</p><p>            After an eternity of uncomfortable silence, Will spoke.</p><p>            “How are you?” he asked without looking up.</p><p>            Nico exhaled, not realizing he had been holding his breath. He felt like he’d answered this question a thousand times already, and he found it pointless to reply. He’d been hoping Will would look at him so he could convey his answer through a death glare, but the son of Apollo was resolutely staring at the ground.</p><p>            “I’m fine,” he finally responded, very aware of the fact that this was the first time he spoke directly to Will Solace. The effort of forming words was more than Nico had anticipated, his throat was as dry as a bone. He noticed a pitcher of water on his bedside table and made a grab for a glass, but Will beat him to it.</p><p>            “Let me,” he said, filling up the glass to the brim. Nico noticed his hands – he had never seen them from up close. His nails were carefully trimmed, the pads of his fingers looked soft, almost feminine, a healthy tan glistened across his forearms. Nico couldn’t find the strength to look away. He accepted the glass without a word of thanks and took a careful sip. It felt like the breath of life.</p><p>            “I’m fine,” Nico heard himself repeat without having been prompted.</p><p>            Will looked up and their eyes met for a second before the blonde looked away.</p><p>            “I thought. I mean, I wondered – I thought I might as well ask,” Will stammered, and Nico rolled his eyes involuntarily. He knew what he’d been about to ask, and he’d been readying himself for it for the past few minutes.</p><p>            “Spit it out, Solace,” Nico said, trying to mask his nervousness with annoyance.</p><p>            “You know my name?” Will suddenly asked, taking Nico by surprise.</p><p>            “D-Dionysus called you Solace,” Nico improvised. “Is that not your name?” Smooth, he thought. An idea started to form in his mind.</p><p>            “Y-Yes. Will. Will Solace. That’s me,” the blonde replied with a weak smile, pointing his thumb at his chest, as if Nico needed the clarification.</p><p>            Nico decided to ride the silence that followed. He would not be the one to bring the conversation to the point of no return. He decided to take advantage of the fact that Will Solace seemed to be avoiding his eyes, and drank him in with his own. He’d never been this close to him before, not while fully conscious at least. His eyelashes were longer than he’d imagined. His golden locks were darker around his ears. His nose was peppered with freckles.</p><p>            “So, how are you?” Will asked again. “I mean – you were in a real state the other night. I guess I wondered… what happened to you?” he added in a soft voice.</p><p>            “Nothing happened to me,” Nico replied almost defiantly.</p><p>            Will glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow that screamed <em>oh, please.</em></p><p>“You are possibly the only camper that has ever been personally escorted into the infirmary by Mr. D. You’ve been basically in a coma for two days. You were transparent for god’s sake. And you’ve been missing for two weeks! I haven’t seen you since--” Will’s voice hitched at the end of his monologue. He stopped speaking abruptly. He looked embarrassed.</p><p>            But Nico was the sneakiest scion of the Underworld, and as such, he knew no shame. Quick as lightning, he had conjured up a plan in the last few minutes of conversation.</p><p>            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied. I’ve been away from camp for a couple of days, but I haven’t been <em>missing.”</em></p><p>
  <em>            Feign ignorance. Deny everything. Lie through your teeth. He has no evidence against you, son of Hades. You barely know this guy’s name. </em>
</p><p>Will looked as if Nico had slapped him.</p><p>            “But – but. Wait. You – “ he stammered, but their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the infirmary door banging open, and Austin walking back inside with a tray full of sandwiches and sodas.</p><p>            “Dinner time, son of Hades! We can’t have you pass out on us again, not on my watch!” he announced.</p><p>            Will looked at Nico with disbelief and hurt. Nico held his gaze and mustered up his strength to look confused.</p><p>            <em>If it hadn’t been preordained from the moment you were born, son of Hades, you’d definitely have earned a one-way ticket to hell today,</em> he thought bitterly.</p><p>Austin placed a tray of sandwiches on Nico’s bedside, offering one directly to him alongside a bottle of Gatorade.</p><p>            Nico took them but placed the items gingerly on his lap.</p><p>            “When can I get out of here?” he asked Austin, ignoring Will completely. He didn’t trust himself to look at him.</p><p>            “What do you think, Will? Maybe an extra night?” Austin deferred to his sibling, who was clearly the one in charge.</p><p>            Will’s look of utter confusion lasted only an additional second.</p><p>            “No,” Will said firmly. “He can’t be discharged until he is fully healed. One extra night isn’t going to cut it.” His voice sounded determined, a little angry even.</p><p>            “Wait-“ Nico stammered.</p><p>            “Okay then,” Austin said as if he couldn’t care less.</p><p>            “But-“ Nico tried to speak up, but Will grabbed a sandwich and inserted it into Nico’s half-open mouth. The son of Hades choked and tried to push Will’s hands away, but found he was in such a weakened state that all he could do was chew and swallow and glare daggers at him.</p><p>            “Dionysus has made me personally responsible for you, and I am the best healer this cabin has seen in a long time. You <em>will</em> do as I say, you <em>will </em>heal and you, you will… you will stay,” the son of Apollo turned on his heels and left Nico’s bedside, walking straight towards the reception desk and plopped down to busy himself with some paperwork.</p><p>            “You heard the man,” said Austin. “Eat, drink your Gatorade, take your ambrosia and – “</p><p>            “I don’t need this,” Nico said loudly, peeling himself off the bed with excruciating effort. He almost toppled over the second he stood up, Austin meant to grab him but Nico pushed him away so weakly that Austin didn’t seem to have the heart to overpower him. “I’m outta here,” he threatened, but as soon as he reached the door, he found he couldn’t open it.</p><p>            Will smirked at him from the reception table.</p><p>            “You are bound to the infirmary, di Angelo,” said the blonde with a cruel chuckle very unlike himself. “Now be a good boy and go back to bed, we have a long night ahead of us.”</p><p>            Nico groaned as he pulled on the door handle, making shadows smoke out of his hands.</p><p>            “Uh, Will?” Austin called for his brother’s attention. Nico’s hands were making a strange hissing sound where they wrapped around the brass handle.</p><p>            “Why won’t this shit – “</p><p>            “You’d be wise to stop that,” said Will standing up but keeping his distance. “That’s a godly command that’s keeping you bound to this place. You won’t be able to open the door, sneak out windows, I’m not even sure you’d be able to flush yourself out the toilet if you tried. If you keep that up, you’re just going to hinder your own recovery. See? The tips of your fingers are turning transparent.”</p><p>            Nico threw him a disdainful look, but let go of the door handle. An idea worth trying suddenly hit him. He focused all his energy, which wasn’t considerable at the moment, and raised his arms, as if to summon all dead souls from the Underworld. For a second nothing seemed to happen except the Earth turning upside down, Nico would have hit the floor had Austin not caught him.</p><p>            “He’s not going to stop, is he?” Austin asked, gathering Nico in his arms and carrying him off to bed yet again. “What is he even doing?”</p><p>            “Aha!” Nico pointed a finger at the infirmary door and both Will and Austin gasped. A zombie, because it couldn’t have been anything but a zombie, was standing outside the infirmary, looking in through the small window at the top of the front door.</p><p>            “What the – “ said Will, looking around for a weapon to wield.</p><p>            “Jules-Albert!” yelled Nico weakly. “Get me out of here!”</p><p>            But the zombie wouldn’t or couldn’t open the door. The handle turned, but it appeared to be locked, even though it wasn’t.</p><p>            “Wow. Dionysus knows what he’s doing,” Will mumbled, clearly impressed.</p><p>            “Are you telling me you know this zombie?” Austin asked incredulously. “Damn. Words never uttered before.”</p><p>            “He’s my… he’s my zombie,” Nico responded, making Austin’s jaw go slack.</p><p>            “Is he dangerous?” Will asked, his eyes on the dead face of Jules-Albert who stood immobile by the door.</p><p>            “He’s just my driver,” Nico responded, he lay back on the pillow and began massaging his temple.</p><p>            “Well, he can’t come in. Tell him to go away,” said Will.</p><p>            “No,” Nico replied.</p><p>            “He can’t stay there, he’ll scare people away!”</p><p>            “If I have to stay, he stays!” Nico’s voice was weak, but firm.</p><p>            Will rolled his eyes and looked at Austin for support, but his brother merely shrugged.</p><p>            “Alright, seems like you got everything under control, I’m gonna go. Di Angelo, you are one messed up demigod. See you tomorrow.”</p><p>            “Listen, Lake,” Nico whispered conspiratorially. He made a weak grab for Austin’s scrubs and pulled him in closer. “What’s it gonna take to get me out of here? Tell me what you want, it’s yours. Precious stones? Tickets to Lou Reed’s annual Underworld Saturnalia concert?” At this point, Nico thought he’d offer him his own soul if he thought Austin would take it.</p><p>            “Lou Reed? Really?” Austin said in surprise.</p><p>            “VIP tickets, and a backstage pass,” Nico promised.</p><p>            “Man, you did not just try to bribe me,” Austin laughed, gently prying Nico’s fingers away off his scrubs and patting him on the back. “I suggest you don’t try the same with Will or Kayla. They’ll curse you to speak in rhyming couplets, that shit takes days to wear off, I wouldn’t recommend you try.”</p><p>            Nico groaned and rubbed his eyes with his palms, plopping back down on his pillow. “I can’t stay here another second!” he moaned. “It’s too bright and… wholesome.”</p><p>            Will laughed from the reception desk. The sound was crisp and light and it made Nico turn to look at him.</p><p>            “Wholesome, good word,” he said bitterly. Austin gave Nico a puzzled look.</p><p>            “Okaay,” Austin said, right eyebrow raised. “I don’t know what you’ve done to piss Will off, but I'd stop if I were you. Will can be scary when he’s mad,” he added.</p><p>            Nico frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.</p><p>            “I didn’t do anything. And he doesn’t know what scary is,” he said ominously.</p><p>            Austin didn’t reply. He left shortly after, sneaking out the window to avoid opening the door and coming face-to-face with a zombie.</p><p>            Will and Nico sat in silence for a long time. Will busied himself around the infirmary and Nico followed him with his eyes wherever he went, bent on not being the first to speak. Jules-Albert remained on his post by the door with a glazed look on his undead face.</p><p>            After a while, Will returned to Nico’s bedside and placed a large paper bag over his lap.</p><p>            “What is this?” Nico asked drily.</p><p>            “Clothes and some toiletries,” Will replied without looking at him, instead he picked up a chart and started making annotations. “Thought you might want to take a shower and change out of your clothes. I’ll change the bedsheets while you’re gone, these are filthy.”</p><p>            Nico peeked into the bag. An orange Camp-Half Blood t-shirt and some sweats and clean socks sat neatly folded inside along with other miscellaneous toiletries.</p><p>            “These aren’t mine,” Nico added.</p><p>            Will shrugged.</p><p>            “The clothes are from the Camp Store, they’re a loan so don’t rip them or anything.”</p><p>            Nico sighed, he returned his hands to his lap and closed his eyes.</p><p>            “I’d be happy to go to your cabin and get some of your clothes tomorrow. Just do me a favor and go get cleaned up so I can change the sheets. They are driving me insane.”</p><p>            “Fine,” Nico said, standing up slowly and walking to the bathroom. He could feel Will’s eyes poring over him, burning through his soiled clothes. He wished he would look away. When he reached the bathroom door, he heard quick footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Will walking past him into the bathroom, making Nico gasp.</p><p>            “What the-“</p><p>            “The water heater’s old,” Will explained, he turned it on and off a couple of times, hitting the front with a well-aimed slap. The machine began to hum. “There you go.”</p><p>            Nico waited for Will to get out of the bathroom, he would not walk in while he was still there.</p><p>            When he walked out, Will took a step too close to Nico, making him step back. Without looking at him, Will leaned in closer and placed his mouth just over Nico’s ear, the son of Hades’s back hit the wall behind him, his eyes wide with surprise.</p><p>            “I know it was you,” he whispered, making Nico shiver. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll never bring it up again. But I know it was you, so don’t pretend.”</p><p>            “I – I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nico stammered, but his voice was weak.</p><p>            Will’s eyes turned on him, electric blue seemed to seep into Nico’s skin, sending jolts of electricity down his body.</p><p>            “Stop,” Will whispered, bracing his arm on the wall behind Nico, his bodies almost touching but not quite. Nico felt Will’s breath on his cheek. “Just remember one thing. All those times I let you watch, I <em>let</em> you watch. Did you hear that, di Angelo? I <em>let</em> you watch. Do what you please with this information, but spare me the lies.” His eyes pore into Nico’s own, then his gaze lingered down to Nico’s lips, and then Will was gone, leaving Nico to question his existence.</p><p>            Under the hot spray of the shower, the caked blood from his injuries and the grime in his hair properly washed off, Nico stood with his back against the tiled wall, his chin pointing up. Water trickled into his mouth and then down his chin. He closed his eyes and traced a hand over his chest, his abdomen, his groin. Grabbing his cock with a weak grasp, Nico began to pump himself hard.</p><p>            He wouldn’t cum, he’d never survive it. The last thing he wanted was his MOD to be Death by masturbation. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to please himself, if only for a moment. It felt like it had been so long since he’d last done it.</p><p>            He didn’t see how he had missed it. It was so clear, so obvious. It had been right there for him to see. If Will Solace had known his identity all along, then of course he knew he was being watched. And he had let it go on for as long as it did. What did it all mean, Nico couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure, but it did entail a couple of things. One: Will Solace had been complicit in the entire situation. He couldn’t possibly hate Nico, pinned him for a voyeuristic pervert without sharing some of the blame. Hadn’t he been the one naked? The one teasing his nipples, the one biting hard on his lip as he pulled at his red, angry cock and squeezed every bit of cum out of it. All while knowing he’d had an audience, and being privy to the identity of his secret spectator. Which took Nico to the second point to consider: was Will Solace gay? Nico hadn’t thought so. Now, he wasn’t so sure. With this thought in mind, Nico’s cock hard and heavy in his hand, he wondered if he’d want him to be, and what that meant for him.</p><p>            Nico moaned and bit his lower lip, his pumps slow and steady. Will Solace stood behind that door, the thought sent chills down his spine. Nico remembered the tips of Will’s fingers. He stuck one of his own into his mouth and pretended they were Will’s. After all, he wasn’t over it. He wasn’t over him. He had him under a spell and Nico couldn’t get away. He was bound to him as powerfully as he was bound to the infirmary. An obsession so strong it might have been god-induced. </p><p>            He tightened his grasp on his cock and wondered how it would feel to be pumping Will instead of himself. Would he feel good, like Nico did just now? Yes, Nico would make sure of that. He ran a thumb across his slit. What if it were Will’s and not his own dick in his hand? He moaned louder this time, and bit his knuckle. He couldn’t let himself cum, he’d simply pass out in the shower. Then Will would come in and find him dead in a puddle of semen and he’d never know what Will’s balls tasted like, or what Will’s fingers felt like inside of him. He almost reached out and inserted a finger in his own ass, but sheer will of force kept him from it. Not tonight.</p><p>            He groaned and released his cock, which took its time to settle back down. Nico turned off the hot water, hoping cold water would do the trick. In a few minutes’ time, he was dressed and walking out of the bathroom with a frown that he hoped would mask his newborn excitement. By the time he made his way back to bed, night had fallen and the infirmary was bathed in the warm light of the bedside lamps.</p><p>            He found Will sitting by his bed reading a book. When he saw Nico, he took off his reading glasses (<em>gods, he wears reading glasses,</em> Nico whimpered inwardly), and smiled.</p><p>            “Nice shower?” he asked.</p><p>            Nico glared at him and stood by the bed, not sure if he wanted to get in while Will sat so closely by.</p><p>            “What are you doing?” Nico asked, at a loss for something else to say.</p><p>            “Reading,” Will answered, as if it hadn’t been the most obvious thing in the world. Nico rolled his eyes.</p><p>            “I mean, what are you doing sitting there, reading?”</p><p>            Will crossed his legs and bit the temples of his glasses, studying Nico from head to foot. Nico felt suddenly very self-conscious, but refused to look away. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for an answer.</p><p>            “Waiting for you, of course,” he replied with a smirk. Nico appeared to have underestimated Will Solace, because the shit-eating grin he was giving him was worthy of Hermes himself.</p><p>            “Why?” Nico asked tentatively.</p><p>            Will took his time to answer. His eyes ran up and down Nico’s body, he twirled his glasses in his hands, biting at the temples from different angles. Nico rolled his eyes impatiently, hoping to keep his nerves at bay.</p><p>            “Need to check your vitals, make sure you take your meds, I’m giving you something for dreamless sleep, that’s if you want it, of course.” As he spoke, he stood up and placed his book on Nico’s bedside table alongside his glasses. He motioned to the bed and put on his stethoscope.</p><p>            Grudgingly, Nico got into bed, sitting down with his feet under him.</p><p>            Will reached out a hand, palm up, silently beckoning Nico to offer his wrist. Nico wondered why he wouldn’t just reach out and grab him, like his half-brother had done. But he figured he preferred it this way. At least, it seemed less invasive.</p><p>            When his arm made contact with Will’s hands, he felt a jolt of electricity go through him. Maybe Will felt it too, because his eyes widened just the slightest bit.</p><p>            Nico wondered if he should be embarrassed about how fast his heart was beating at the moment, it’s not like he could hide the fact from Will, who was currently taking his pulse. Yep, he knew, that smirk told Nico all he needed to know.</p><p>            “Strong heart you got there,” Will spoke softly, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His hands were gentle and soft, the way Nico had always pictured them. “Take a deep breath for me, please.”</p><p>            Nico did as he was told. Will proceeded to move his stethoscope across Nico’s back, occasionally stopping here and there to make an annotation on his chart.</p><p>            “All done. Your breathing is a little strained, your pulse is strong but you clearly need rest.” As he stopped talking, he looked at Nico with concern in his eyes. “There is a strange… airiness to you. Something hard to pinpoint. Incorporeal. Does that make any sense?” he asked Nico, as if genuinely hoping for an answer.</p><p>            Nico shrugged. He’d never really paid much attention to the side effects to his shadow travelling.</p><p>            “Regardless, you’ll need to drink lots of this,” he handed him a Styrofoam cup that had been sitting on Nico’s bedside table. “And take all of these,” he handed him a tiny plastic cup containing a few purple pills and a hazelnut-sized square of Ambrosia. “I’ll have to give you another IV now, just another night should do it.”</p><p>            “Fine,” Nico said, not really minding the intrusive needle as Will prepared the materials. He worked in silence for a while, Nico watching his every move.</p><p>            “I’m going to ask a favor now. And I know you’ll say yes because I’ve been watching over your comatose ass for the past two days, so you owe me.” </p><p>            He didn't say <em>because you've been spying on me while I put on a show for you</em>. Nico had to admire the diplomacy. He popped the pills into his mouth with a frown and took a sip of the mysterious orangey liquid from the other night, which turned out to be Gatorade. He would have prompted Will to continue but he figured his eyes spoke clearly enough on his behalf.</p><p>            “Could you ask your um… zombie friend to go away? He’s kinda freaking me out a bit,” said Will with an embarrassed chuckle. Nico turned to the door where, sure enough, Jules-Albert’s cold dead stare was fixed on the two of them, barely illuminated by the warm lights of the bedside lamps. He did look a bit spooky, like a corpse that had drowned in shallow waters, which made Nico smile.</p><p>            “Afraid of zombies?” Nico asked, teasingly.</p><p>            Will looked at him with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>            “Just don’t much like being watched,” he stopped for effect and drank in Nico’s expression. “With the occasional exception,” he added, and Nico felt his face grow hot. He was not going to survive his time in the infirmary if Will Solace kept trying to kill him.</p><p>            “J-Jules-Albert,” said Nico loudly, pointing away with his chin. “You can go now, I’ll call you if I need you.”</p><p>            The zombie groaned in assent and turned away.</p><p>            “Why do you have a zombie, anyway?” Will asked, putting on latex gloves and offering his palm, ready to insert the IV. Nico placed his forearm on Will’s outstretched hand and looked away.</p><p>            “My dad’s idea of a joke. Jules-Albert is my driver. He’s pretty useless at anything but driving, but he does take the occasional command, so long as it doesn't involve cooking. He does do laundry though,” he replied with a smirk. He felt a sting as Will drove the needle into his arm with surgical precision.</p><p>            “Wow. Must be nice having a dad that cares that much,” Will said, a note of irony in his voice. Nico didn’t need to ask what it meant, as it was with most demigods, Will Solace probably didn’t get on well with his fatherly god of all-those-things.</p><p>            “There,” Will said, finishing off his small procedure by sticking a yellow Band-Aid over the thin tube protruding from Nico’s vein, holding it in place.</p><p>            “Thank you,” Nico mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper, but Will Solace must have heard, because he smiled and nodded curtly in response.</p><p>            “That sleeping pill is going to be kicking in pretty soon, so I’d appreciate it if you finished your Gatorade before you pass out,” Will said, holding out Nico’s Styrofoam cup for him to grab. When Nico’s straw started making slurping sounds and the drink was finished, Will took it from him and replaced it on the bedside table.</p><p>            “I’ll let you go to sleep now,” Will said, gathering up a few used supplies.</p><p>            “I’m not sleepy,” Nico retorted, surprising himself.</p><p>            “You will be,” Will added and checked his wristwatch. “In about five to ten minutes.”</p><p>            “I’m sorry,” Nico whispered, and Will Solace stopped on his tracks. “About earlier,” Nico added for good measure. He didn’t want Will to misunderstand. “I’m not usually that melodramatic. I just don’t like being forced to do things.”</p><p>            Will took a seat on the chair by the bed, his grasp on the tray he'd been holding went slack its contents spilled on the floor.</p><p>            “I get that,” he said, looking at the cotton balls that had peppered the area between his feet and ignoring them. “I'm sorry too, for being... a little rude, I guess? Thing is, I take my job very seriously. I may not be good at many things, such as archery or music or poetry, but I am pretty good at healing. And you are my patient now, I feel one hundred percent responsible for your recovery, and I peg you for an extremely stubborn person, so I take it you wouldn’t let me heal you properly if you weren’t bound to this infirmary.”</p><p>            “That’s sort of true,” a smile tugged on the corner of Nico’s mouth, making Will laugh.</p><p>            “I can take melodramatic, that’s no problem. In a way I’m used to that, you should see the Ares demigods after a battle. They are impossible to care for. So long as you remain here and let me heal you properly, I can take your melodrama. Believe me, you’re in good hands. And another thing,” he stopped abruptly, making Nico scowl. “I hope… we’re okay? You know, like… I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable? We’ve been put in this position, you and I, by a godly command. There's not much either of us can do to change that. I’m in charge of you, and you are bound to here. But that doesn’t mean we need to be at each other’s throats.”</p><p>            Nico squinted, his eyes feeling a little heavy, but he nodded nonetheless, making Will smile widely.</p><p>            “Good. Who knows, something good might come out of this whole situation.” Will Solace shrugged and adjusted his wristwatch.</p><p>            “Like what?” Nico ventured, his words slurred with sleep and jitters.</p><p>            Will thought for a little while before answering. “Like, you could learn some basic healing techniques. Learn to treat your own injuries. These skills come in only too handy for demigods, just so you know.”</p><p>            Nico nodded slowly, considering the idea.</p><p>            “I could get to know you. You could get to know me?” Will added tentatively, his eyes resolutely set on his wristwatch. He glanced up and found Nico staring at him.</p><p>            “Why would you want to do that?” Nico asked quietly.</p><p>            Will blushed and let out a little airy chuckle.</p><p>            “I’d like to, that’s all. W-Wouldn’t you like to get to know me?”    </p><p>            Nico stared at those intense blue eyes, he could see the light of the lamp reflected on his irises. He looked more alive than Nico had ever seen him before.</p><p>            “I’d like that,” he said, finally.</p><p>            Will sighed so dramatically that Nico felt compelled to roll his eyes, although with some difficulty.</p><p>            “Good. Okay, well. Good,” Will stammered, getting up and picking up some cotton balls scattered across the floor. “Well, goodnight!” he said brightly, turning around and hitting his knee on the chair.</p><p>            Nico smiled and closed his eyes, it had taken all his strength to keep them open and he was glad he did, as he would never forget the image of Will Solace walking away from him and tripping over his own feet.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello again, and thank you for reaching the end of this giant chapter.<br/>Here are my thoughts on what has transpired.<br/>I figured that Nico would have had a pretty serious reaction to being found out, let's face it, he isn't the most in-touch-with-his-emotions-type of guy, so he probably went on a melodramatic emo rampage across the Underworld and did some serious damage to himself. Self-loathing and a little homophobia here and there, you know what I mean? But the bottom line is, he has a massive, ultra pervy crush on Will and he just doesn't know how to deal with it. And when he realizes that he might be reciprocated, there's bound to be a change in his persona. I tried to convey that, although I hope it didn't seem too out of character.<br/>And Will, who is just so sweet and embarrassed and maybe a little confused as well? I definitely want to explore his feelings on the next chapter, and heads up, he's clearly already started to develop a bit of a crush on Nico di Angelo. Because duh, who wouldn't. And he is also a little horny teenager, so, he'll be coming to terms with that.<br/>All in all, this is turning out to be a "getting together" story, with the added plus of explicit scenes.<br/>Also, I wanted to add some fluff and some humor there, cause I thought all the Nico angst would set a definite tone to the story, and I don't quite like it when things are too heavy and depressing. I have a lot of fun writing fanfiction, and too much angst just messes with my mojo.<br/>I'd love to know what you think. Drop me a line and I'll be sure to reply to all comments!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. WILL SOLACE II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It’s been called to my attention that Camp Half-Blood doesn’t have an infirmary, just a cot in the Apollo Cabin, which makes no sense to me and I refuse to accept it! Also! Apparently showers and bathrooms are on a separate building? Now, we can’t have that, can we? Nope nope nope!</p><p>On a side note, there might be some triggers ahead, read with caution and be sure to check out the notes at the end for further discussion. I am seriously nervous about this one. </p><p>Additional side note: in an attempt to make this chapter canon-compliant, I’ve taken the (shameless) liberty of adapting some lines of the original dialogue into the characters’ interactions. See if you can spot them.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>WILL SOLACE</p><p> </p><p>            Will’s smile carried him all the way back to the Apollo cabin and remained firmly stamped on his face throughout the rest of the morning. He relished in the feel of the warm breeze blowing through his hair, the rays of the sun warming him as he practically skipped across Camp, looking forward to the start of his next shift.</p><p>            When was the last time that had happened? Never. It had never happened before. Sure, he liked manning the infirmary, he didn’t even see it as a responsibility – more like an opportunity to do what he excelled at. He knew how to make the best of his shifts most of the time, and he’d learned to tolerate the long, lonely hours when there were no patients to care for. But look forward to his shifts? Never.</p><p>            And all because of three simple words. Nico di Angelo.</p><p>            Or was that two words?</p><p>            He’d had to leave. After more than two days on duty, he’d been forced to take the day off. But not without promising to come back sometime later, as a visitor, of course. As a result, as soon as he’d walked out of the infirmary early in the morning, he’d been counting the minutes to come back.</p><p>            Alas, the infirmary’s mandatory rotating shift established by his predecessor, Michael Yew, required him to take a whole day off after three consecutive 12-hour shifts. Will had spent the past two days in the infirmary, so, as it was, he wouldn’t be expected back for an entire 24 hours.</p><p>            <em>More like, allowed back,</em> he thought. Kayla, his half-sister and fellow healer wouldn’t hear a word of it. She’d basically kicked Will out of the infirmary as soon as she’d arrived for her morning shift, making sure to yell things like <em>Don’t forget to sleep! </em>and <em>Remember to take the laundry to the harpies! </em>and <em>Make sure you get a decent meal! </em>and <em>Do take a shower William, you clearly need one!</em></p><p>And boy, did he need one indeed.</p><p>            He remembered the look on Nico’s face when Will had told him Kayla would be watching over him for the remainder of the day. He’d scowled at him, silently asking why he had to be left alone with a complete stranger. The idea of Nico wanting to spend more time with him made him want to stand outside the infirmary door, like some kind of zombie chauffeur, and wait until his next shift started.</p><p>            And yet, there was something else. Something that felt Nico-unrelated, something that kept him feeling butterflies in his stomach, or like a dam was about to burst from within him. Something he couldn’t quite place but felt he barely had it under control. He figured he needed to release some tension in order to get in touch with his brain, so he doubled his pace.</p><p>            As the cabins enclosure became visible in the distance, the Apollo cabin glimmered so brightly under the rays of the sun it was impossible to tell if the golden building was reflecting the sunlight or generating it. Walking past the dining pavilion, Will spotted his brother Austin sitting by himself at the Apollo table, having what looked like a quick breakfast, his saxophone case on the seat beside him. He motioned at Will to join him but Will shook his head, making a sign with his finger and mouthing the word <em>shower. </em></p><p>            Because Will needed a shower, and he needed one now.</p><p>            Just the thought sent chills down his spine.</p><p>            Over the past thirty-odd hours, he’d had more than enough time to go through a rainbow of emotions that by the end of his first shift resembled something more akin to a broken kaleidoscope.</p><p>            When he’d started his shift, he’d expected it to be yet another twelve boring hours of killing time. Maybe this time he’d manage to get past the first few pages of his book.</p><p>            He had never imagined that his life would be turned upside down in such a small window of time as a result of Nico di Angelo being brought to his care.</p><p>            Nico di Angelo, son of Hades.</p><p>            His not-so-mysterious mystery stalker.</p><p>            Will smiled and ran a hand through his hair.</p><p>            Officially, his shift would have ended the morning after Nico had been first brought to the infirmary, but being left personally in charge of him by Dionysus, Will felt like abandoning his post while his patient was still transparent would be pushing his luck. He was glad his brother Austin had joined him, it was his shift after all, but Will refused to leave, and they both fussed about the state of the barely visible son of Hades.</p><p>            By the end of his second shift, Nico had woken up, and Will kept finding excuses to stay. He’d switched shifts with Kayla and sent her home, which she only agreed to after Will had promised to take over laundry duty and take the whole day off the next day. Feeling a little giddy, Will proceeded to watch over his sleeping patient, and watching <em>was</em> the right word, for Will stared at Nico’s sleeping form for half of the night. What a little stalker he’d turned out to be himself. Since Nico had been doing a little bit of watching of his own over the past few months, Will figured it was only fair.</p><p>            With the Apollo cabin only a few steps away, Will tried to conjure up the memory of the first time he had laid eyes on the son of Hades. Must have been years ago, because he could faintly recall an olive-skinned child of about 10, short and skinny, with a mop of black hair and old-fashioned clothes, awestruck by the camp and easily excitable. Will shook his head and chuckled.</p><p>            The image was endearing, but very much in contrast to the Nico of today.</p><p>            To the inattentive eye, the Nico di Angelo of today looked just like your average metalhead. Skinny jeans, black shirt, aviator jacket, long hair, skull ring on his left-hand middle finger, an unfriendly resting face. That had been his very superficial impression up until two days ago, and he was pretty sure the entire bulk of campers shared the same appreciation.</p><p>            What fools they were, unable to see past the least interesting aspects of Nico di Angelo.  </p><p>            Will realized he could presently fill up entire notebooks with descriptions of the dark-haired boy. For instance, he’d only come to realize until very recently that Nico’s eyes were brown, not black as he’d assumed. But brown seemed like such a dull word to use in describing Nico di Angelo’s eyes. They resembled large pools of piping-hot espresso under the blazing rays of the Mediterranean afternoon sun.</p><p>            Whoah, where had that come from?</p><p>            Also, Nico wasn’t as short as Will remembered, maybe because he’d only caught glimpses of him from afar. Will was taller, yes, but Nico was only an inch or so shorter than him. How deceiving can first impressions be.</p><p>            Recalling the entirety of Nico di Angelo as Will had committed to memory was only too easy. Nico’s dark long hair reached his shoulders when wet. He had a long neck, swan-like, alabaster white. His features were delicate, sharp and angular, but there was an undeniable masculinity about him. His shoulders were broad, his hips narrow. His limbs were so slender they elongated him, yet muscle clearly rippled across his entire body, covered only by the thinnest layer of white skin. His incredibly low percentage of body fat left Will wondering if the son of Hades ever ate, or if he was just one of those people who simply couldn’t put on weight. Finding a vein to insert an IV had given Will ample time to study Nico’s callused hands and strong forearms, hardened by hears of wielding a sword. Nico di Angelo wouldn’t be mistaken for a girl in a thousand years, a thought that made Will take a shaky breath – Nico di Angelo was a man, alright.</p><p>            The Apollo cabin looked unfamiliar for a second as Will walked inside. He’d spent so much time at the infirmary these past few days that he half expected to see a reception desk by the door. He made a beeline for the bathroom, peeling off his clothes on the way to the door.</p><p>            Excitement rippled through him.</p><p>            He was half-hard.</p><p>            It had been a while since he’d taken a shower so early in the morning. The sunlight came in through the windows facing east, casting shadows on all the wrong places. But Will didn’t need to wonder if he’d be watched today – he knew he wouldn’t be, and yet he felt exhilarated. Because now he had a whole new batch of images in his mind.</p><p>            The hot water hit him like a million little blades stabbing him on the back, making him hiss, but he quickly relaxed into the feeling. He closed his eyes and, out of habit, opened himself up to the presence he knew wasn’t there, trying to sense the lust and the anticipation that usually seeped out of the shadows.</p><p>            He recalled the time he’d made the subconscious choice of allowing the intrusion to continue. He had been hit by a wave of eagerness so strong, so <em>needy</em> he’d gotten instantly erect. Now, just the thought of it made him shiver under the hot water. He looked down at his cock, standing at attention, proud and tall and pink and begging to be touched.</p><p>            When he wrapped his hand around it, Nico’s face exploded in his mind. He wished Nico could see him now, pumping his dick, driven not by Nico’s powerful aura, not by the intensity with which he watched Will please himself – but by images of Nico’s hands, his strong chin, his angular shoulders, his Adam’s apple, the bits and pieces of Nico that Will had been collecting while the son of Hades sat on the bed, while he ate, while he thrashed around in his sleep. Would he be mad if he knew? Embarrassed? Excited?  </p><p>            As he played with the tip of his cock, Will knew he would finish today. He could feel it already, the powerful boiling sensation building up in his lower abdomen. And to think he’d been so blocked as of late. He moaned and the sound made him laugh with blissful abandon. He wouldn’t last much longer. For the first time in his life, Will’s passion had a face, it wasn’t just a random body or a random presence.</p><p>            It was Nico he thought of when he licked his lips. It was Nico’s hair he thought of when he imagined running his fingers through wet, black locks, Nico's head bobbing up and down over Will’s shaft. It was Nico he thought of when he pictured a wet, naked body sliding up against him under the spray, cocks rubbing, legs intertwining, hands grabbing at skin, mouths meeting in an abandoned open-mouthed kiss as steam enveloped them and hot water cascaded around them.</p><p>            “Gods,” he hissed. “Don’t stop.”</p><p>            His panting quickened, his neck strained. He attacked his cock with a newfound ferocity that had him bracing an arm on the wall for support.</p><p>            How impossible would it be, after all, to turn his fantasy into reality?</p><p>            Maybe not impossible at all.</p><p>            Maybe he needn’t be standing alone in the shower stall wanking away on his own like an idiot.</p><p>            Not if Nico. Nico. Nico. <em>Ah.</em></p><p>            Not if Nico allowed Will to try.</p><p>            He would feel so good, he knew he would. He would make Nico feel <em>so</em> good.</p><p>            Just as good as Will felt right now.</p><p>            He’d make him moan, he’d pull them so close together they wouldn’t know where one ended and the other began.</p><p>            He would take both their cocks in his hand.</p><p>
  <em>            Ahhh. </em>
</p><p>            Will’s breath hitched in his throat and his cock exploded in his hand, pearly-white liquid shooting out of the tip of his cock with such force it hit the wall. He saw sparks in the back of his mind, every nerve on his body was on fire as pleasure rippled through him.</p><p>             As he squeezed out every last drop of semen, he closed his eyes, willing his heartbeat to slow down.</p><p>            He panted and panted until he started giggling, and then his giggles turned into a bubbly, unstoppable fit of laughter. The metaphorical dam had burst within him, and in a matter of seconds, it all made sense to Will. He would have raised his arms over his head and skipped if he weren’t standing on a slippery surface.  </p><p>            Will was gay! He was so gay! He laughed and he might have wept tears of something akin to joy and relief and hopefulness. He laughed and laughed and punched the air. He was gay and smitten and perfectly at peace with the world. Who would have known that catharsis felt so good? Not him. Not in a million years.</p><p>            “So that’s what that was,” he said, running his cum-free hand through his wet golden locks and inserting a cum-soaked finger into his mouth.</p><p>            All those years of worrying about others, of taking care of patients, of making sure his fellow campers received the medical attention they deserved and constantly putting other people’s needs before his. All those years of ignoring his most basic need for closeness, from his mother who’d let him stay at camp since he was 7, from his father, whom he’d never met, from anyone, really. All those years filled with indifference at the compliments he received from people who admired his beauty, which he never trusted himself to believe. He hadn’t realized how lonely he had felt, how emotionally isolated he had become, how well he guarded his feelings, regardless of him being at the center of a crowd or sitting by the window in the infirmary. Regardless of being an overall well-liked, outdoorsy, outgoing camper, Will had been a prisoner within himself. And the walls he had built around him came crumbling down as he stroked his dick one last time and embraced his truth.</p><p>            He realized with a pang, once he’d walked out of the shower and stood stark naked in front of the mirror, that one didn’t need to be coated in shadows in order to hide. Will had been hiding all his life. And it had taken him a handful of electrifying, mind-blowing orgasms to recognize the reason why he’d felt this way, why he’d be eternally grateful to Nico di Angelo for being such a horny pervert and bringing the truth to Will’s attention.</p><p>            Why he’d allowed Nico to watch him, he’d even put on a bit of a show for him, why he’d been reluctant to get romantically attached to any of the other campers all those years, why he’d stayed outside the infirmary bathroom door listening to the water running as Nico showered, all because he was gay (and a little bit of a pervert, too). He smiled and began dressing. For the first time in his life, Will felt liberated, purified, ready to start afresh, because he knew was gay. Happy, just so, <em>so</em> happy, because he now knew and life finally made sense! He smiled at the mosaic of naked Apollo on the floor.</p><p>            “Okay dad, I’m pretty sure I have your blessing on this one,” Will said with a mixture of irony and honest-to-god gratitude at not having to make a big deal out of coming out to his very bisexual dad, if he ever met him. And if he even needed to, after all the ‘I am gay’ chanting he’d been mentally doing for the past few minutes, he’d be surprised if Apollo didn’t wake up this morning feeling particularly frisky, looked down at the Apollo cabin from his temple in Mount Olympus and gone: <em>Huh. Someone’s pretty gay down there. </em></p><p>Will wasn’t sure what to do next with this newly acquired confirmation. Should he make a public statement? Maybe not.</p><p>            Looking at himself in the mirror, Will flexed his muscles, admiring his biceps and the ripples on his abdomen. Was that what had attracted the son of Hades? Will honestly couldn’t tell what was so special about him that had granted him the attention of someone so… so…</p><p>            He couldn’t even finish that sentence without blushing. He could see his blood vessels opening wide up, flooding his face with blood. Gods, he was so much more transparent than Nico di Angelo, who was still literally a little transparent. Is that how he looked when he blushed? He’d never have been able to hide his crush with a face that lit up like a Christmas Tree at the drop of a hat. Thank the gods he did not feel like he needed to hide his crush from anyone.</p><p>            “I guess I’m gay for you, di Angelo,” Will declared to the empty bathroom.</p><p>            And if he was gay, and Will was now confident he was, he was going to be <em>proudly</em> gay – and find love and be happy for the rest of his life. Yes, that was the plan. How hard could that be? And he knew where to start. If only he could get the blushing under control. Lack of sleep and all that blood rushing from his dick to his face had finally started to take a toll on him, making him feel woozy and giddy as he walked out of the bathroom and got into bed.</p><p>            Sleep now, sandwich later. Then he would go to the infirmary. Kayla had told him to return only after 24 hours had entirely elapsed, but she hadn’t mentioned anything about going there as a visitor. Will sighed as he put on his Stormtrooper sleep mask and snuggled into his pillow, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Soon, he'd see him again. Oh, boy. He was fatally attracted to Nico di Angelo, and if <em>that</em> didn’t kill him, nothing would.    </p><p> </p><p>            When he woke up, orange sunlight drifted into the Apollo cabin through the gold-framed windows, letting Will know it was late afternoon. If he didn’t hurry out to the dining pavilion, he’d miss dinner. With that in mind, he started to get dressed as quickly as possible, brushed his teeth lickety-split and combed a hand through his hair, not knowing why he even bothered as his curls had a life of their own.</p><p>            He was astounded at how well he had slept. He hadn’t had any particular dreams other than the usual – the Pillsbury Doughboy chasing him and then joining him for a dance, a recurring dream he’d had since he was little. He felt absolutely rested and refreshed and ready to tackle another day, or in this case, half-a-day, since he’d slept so long.  </p><p>            And now he was awake, he began to get excited.</p><p>            He figured he’d still have time to drop off the bags of laundry at the harpies’ headquarters, have a quick dinner, maybe stop by the camp store for some junk food (nothing better than Kit Kats to recover your strength after shadow traveling) and head straight to the infirmary, just in case they were understaffed.</p><p>            The giddiness from the morning had returned, pulling at the corners of his mouth.</p><p>            <em>He said he’d let me get to know him. </em></p><p>
  <em>            And he’d like to get to know me, too. </em>
</p><p>He wondered what they’d talk about this evening. How do you even get to know someone the ‘normal’ way, anyway? Would it be awkward getting to know Nico, considering Will basically just had an explosive orgasm thinking about him? How does one even go about maneuvering an interaction with someone who has seen you naked and more?</p><p>            Oh, no. Will felt the blush creeping back up his face. He couldn’t let that happen or he’d never make it out of the infirmary alive. If he kept it up, he might end up making things much more awkward than they already were.</p><p>            He slapped himself a couple of times as he reached for the laundry bags and exited the Apollo cabin, making his way to the harpies’ headquarters.</p><p>            At the dining pavilion, he made a point to burn some of his favorite foods as an offering to his father, feeling closer to him than he had ever felt before. He promised to never make a big deal out of it again, but as he watched his bacon sandwich burn in the hearth, he realized how lucky he was that his father was known for ever accepting love whichever way it came from, be it from a man or a woman.</p><p>            “This is for you, dad,” he whispered as the smoke drifted up into the sky. “I feel like I should say something. I’m not sure what… except maybe,” he stopped, looking into the flames. “Except maybe, I’m good. I’m happy. That’s all.”</p><p>            Though some of the other Olympians had known lovers from both sexes, it was Apollo who embraced his sexuality best, and for once, Will was proud to be his son. Not that he was usually ashamed of it, far from it, Apollo was the reason Will had found his calling at such an early age. But this, this was different. This was personal, and he felt like somehow, he had someone mighty powerful and mighty confident watching over him, blessing him and his choices. He felt distantly loved. This warm feeling could have been a projection of his newfound love for himself – or not. He'd never know for sure.</p><p>            He asked for a batch of sandwiches to go – enough to go around the infirmary, and as he passed the head table, he felt a shiver go down his spine. When he turned he found a pair of bright purple eyes staring at him. Dionysus beckoned him with a nod and Will felt compelled to obey.</p><p>            “Solace,” the god acknowledged him, twirling his can of Diet Coke as if it were a glass of fine wine.</p><p>            “Hey, Mr. D. What’s uh, what’s up?” he asked innocently.</p><p>            “I just got an update on the weather report for tomorrow,” the god said, stifling a yawn. “From <em>godly</em> sources,” he added conspiratorially, as if he were speaking in code. “Seems like tomorrow will be sunny. <em>Merrily, buoyantly, blissfully </em>sunny, whatever that means,” he rolled his eyes, as if remembering the weather forecast’s choice of words had somehow taken too much of his energy.</p><p>            Will stared at the god, trying to make sense of the information. “Uh… okay?” he replied.</p><p>            “Your report?” Dionysus asked curtly.</p><p>            “You mean, Nico di Angelo?” Will asked.</p><p>            Dionysus rolled his eyes in exasperation, which were answer enough to Will’s question.</p><p>            “Yes, the son of Hades. Is he dead?” he asked, as if he did not care in the slightest.</p><p>            “Of course not!” Will replied indignantly. “He’s fine, he’s recovering excellently. His vitals are strong, his breathing is labored but we are monitoring him 24/7, he’s no longer transparent… well, just the tips of his fingers, last I saw.”</p><p>            Dionysus nodded gravely.</p><p>            “Good. Good,” he mumbled, almost to himself.</p><p>            Will remembered the night Dionysus had brought Nico into the infirmary, wondering how he had gotten hold of him. As if reading Will’s mind, Dionysus spoke.</p><p>            “He was dropped by a Fury, I don’t know the details, so don’t ask. However,” he stopped for effect, sighing with despondency, as if he hadn't given Will the worst news yet. “I do hope you impress upon you the severity of the situation. Hades has taken a personal interest in his son’s recovery. Do you understand what that means?” he asked Will, taking a sip of Coke.</p><p>            Will thought for a second before answering.</p><p>            “Means there will be a whole lot of zombies around here if anything happens to Nico?” Will ventured a guess.</p><p>            “Your guess is as good as mine. I believe the original words were <em>Next time he comes to the underworld, he better not be dead,</em> or something to that effect,” he said, rolling his eyes a second time. “Regardless, see if you can talk some sense into him concerning his incessant shadow travelling. He might listen to you, as he doesn’t seem to listen to me.”</p><p>            Will’s eyes widened in surprise.</p><p>            “Why – why do you think I… Why would he even listen to me? I’ve got nothing to do with his shadow travelling, I – “ he stammered. Dionysus narrowed his eyes.</p><p>            “You <em>are</em> his doctor, are you not? I thought people were supposed to listen to their doctors?”</p><p>            Will let out a sigh of relief as understanding hit him.</p><p>            “Oh, right. Right. I… will try?” he replied, making it sound more like a question.</p><p>            Dionysus raised his Coke as if about to make a toast, and Will understood himself to be dismissed.</p><p>            “Solace,” the god’s voice reached him as he turned to leave. “Do take care of him,” he added from behind his carbonated beverage. “That kid’s been through too much.”</p><p>            Will shook his head as he walked away from the dining pavilion, trying to clear his mind and focusing on what he was most looking forward to.</p><p> </p><p>           </p><p>            When he entered the infirmary, he found his sister sitting at the reception desk, flipping through an archery magazine with a pen in her mouth. She barely glanced up at him and then shook her head disapprovingly.</p><p>            “You better be here as a visitor, William,” she pronounced in a warning sing-song voice, to which Will responded by offering her a Kit Kat. Kayla took it without looking at him and carelessly pointed to the floor by the beds. “He’s somewhere down there,” she said.</p><p>            “Down there?” Will asked, and spotted Nico lying on the floor in the middle of the infirmary, his arms and legs spread out like a starfish. His eyes were closed, his expression serene. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked in concern.</p><p>            Kayla rolled his eyes.</p><p>            “Mentally? Who knows. Physically: fatigue, labored breathing, some phasing on the tips of his fingers, black smoke comes out of him when you try to touch him,” she added, counting off symptoms with her fingers.</p><p>            “Really? That didn’t happen with me,” Will added curiously, his eyes on the figure on the floor.</p><p>            “Well, aren’t you the lucky one,” Kayla said with sarcasm. “I swear, it’s like squeezing an octopus underwater, he just squirts ink at the smallest touch.”</p><p>            “That’s interesting,” said Will.</p><p>            “I know, right? Never had a shadow traveling patient before, so all these symptoms are new to me, all I can do is keep feeding him ambrosia and Gatorade, can’t think of anything else to do, except perhaps chanting, but I’m not nearly as good as you are, so I might end up messing up. <em>You</em> – “ she emphasized, poking Will on the chest, “are not allowed to chant or do any magical healing in any way until tomorrow, got it? Best you can do is try to cheer him up or something. I don’t know if that’s how he usually is, but he seems downright doomy to me.”</p><p>            Will smiled, doomy was a great word to describe the son of Hades.</p><p>             Leaving his sister by the reception desk, he stepped closer and craned his neck until his face hovered directly above Nico’s.</p><p>            Nico opened his right eye and glanced up at Will.</p><p>            “Can I leave now?” he asked quietly, without attempting to move.</p><p>            Will chuckled and set the bag of goodies he had brought on the nearest bed.</p><p>            “Bored?” he asked, as if he really needed the confirmation. As he expected, Nico did not find it necessary to respond, he just closed his eyes.</p><p>            Will smiled as he took in Nico’s appearance. His long black hair spilled in all directions, the floor under which he rested his head looked the place where an ink bottle had shattered. He was still wearing the sweats and orange Camp Half-Blood shirt Will had given him the previous night, however, he had taken off his boots and socks, his naked feet pointing in opposite directions. He looked peaceful and surprisingly solid, which other than having the effect of making him look like a corpse, made Will exhale in relief.</p><p>            He sat on the floor next to Nico, pulling down the bag of goodies with him. Sifting through it, making rustling sounds as his hand explored the insides, Will brought out a Kit Kat bar and began peeling off the wrapper. When he glanced up, Nico’s hand was stretched out in his direction, silently beckoning Will to hand over the treat. With a smile, Will obliged, placing half of the chocolate on Nico’s out-stretched palm, popping the other half into his mouth.</p><p>            “Will?” Kayla called from the reception desk.</p><p>            “Yeah,” Will turned to see his sister standing by the door and putting on her jacket.</p><p>            “I’m going to the dining pavilion to get a salad or something, I can’t live on chocolates like you. Be a good boy and do no healing, you hear me?” she said, leaving without waiting for an answer.</p><p>            Will turned to Nico, who was still lying on the floor, but whose eyes were fixed intently on him. They stared at each other for what felt like a long time. Will smiled awkwardly as the silence stretched around them, wondering what was going through Nico’s mind. Nico's dark eyes glinted under the warm lights of the bedside lamps, causing excitement to pool somewhere in Will’s abdomen.</p><p>            “Ehm, so…” Will stammered.</p><p>            “So,” Nico repeated, his voice a little hoarse.</p><p>            “You must be pretty bored,” Will asked, at a loss for something else to say. Nico’s gaze felt hot on his skin, as if he were thinking of ways to cook him.</p><p>            “Not anymore,” Nico answered quickly, catching Will by surprise.</p><p>            He could feel the blush returning to his face, and he had half a mind to stand up and go splash himself with cold water, but Nico seemed to sense his discomfort, averting his gaze and reaching out for the plastic bag by Will’s side instead.</p><p>            “What else you got here?” Nico asked and Will exhaled quietly.</p><p>            “I’ve got pretty much every type of junk food they sell at the camp store, plus some sandwiches, if you’re hungry,” Will replied a bit too readily.</p><p>            Nico inspected the contents of the bag with curiosity, pulling out a sealed deck of playing cards.</p><p>            “Really?” Nico asked, his mouth set on a smirk.</p><p>            Will raised his hands as if admitting his guilt.</p><p>            “Hey, just thought you might be a bit bored. What have you been up to? And how are you feeling, by the way?”</p><p>            Nico shrugged and ripped open the packet of playing cards. He began shuffling them quickly like a professional poker player, making Will wonder where he’d learned to do that.</p><p>            “I’m fine,” he replied, dealing them five cards each. He set the cards down and reached into the goodie bag, pulling out a Butterfinger.</p><p>            Will picked up his cards absentmindedly.</p><p>            “No discomfort? Dizziness, nausea?” he asked, placing his pair of kings together and replacing the rest. He came up with a pair of twos.</p><p>            “Nope. I’m fine,” Nico replied, repeating the same action as Will. His expression was neutral, a perfect poker face.</p><p>            “I have an idea,” Will said, getting Nico’s eyes to focus on him instead of glaring at his cards. “I’ll play you for information. Whoever wins will have to answer questions. Truthfully and elaborately – no single word answers. And I can ask you anything, nothing’s off the table.” At this, Nico’s frown returned to his face, glancing between Will and his cards, as if deciding whether or not his hand would be worth the risk.</p><p>            “Okay, what do you want to know?” Nico asked, setting his cards down over his lap and taking a bite of his candy bar, his eyes on Will’s.</p><p>            Honestly, he wanted to know how Nico felt about him, but he’d be damned if he asked that question straight away. So, he went for the basics.</p><p>            “Where were you born and when?” he asked.</p><p>            “Really? That's your question?” Nico deadpanned with a smirk.</p><p>            “Is that too lame? You could also tell me what your favorite food is, your favorite book, your favorite movie…”</p><p>            “Okay, Solace, pace yourself,” said Nico, picking up his hand and staring at the cards. “If I win, you will have to be the one doing the answering, do keep that in mind.”</p><p>            “What have you got? I got two pairs,” said Will, showing his hand expectantly.</p><p>            Nico showed his hand, revealing two kings and three queens.</p><p>            “Full,” he said, biting off a large chunk of Butterfinger. “Pay up, Solace. Answer truthfully and at length – no single word answers.”</p><p>            Will looked incredulously down at Nico’s hand and shook his head.</p><p>            “A lucky hand, di Angelo,” he said. “Just a lucky hand. But alright, a deal is a deal. I was born in Austin, Texas, just turned 18. My favorite food is sandwiches and caramel popcorn. My favorite book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I love Star Wars.”</p><p>            Nico stared at Will with rapt attention and sat silent for a moment.</p><p>            “When you say star wars, are you referring to constellations? Because I’m not aware of any wars fought between stars. And if you mean constellations, like Orion for instance, I really don’t see the appeal. Cause I’ve met him and I can tell you, he’s a real bum,” said Nico thoughtfully, seemingly still racking his brain to conjure up stories of wars fought between clusters of stars.</p><p>            Will looked as if he were staring at something both majestic and incomprehensible, like a unicorn mating with a rainbow, he was vaguely aware of his mouth hanging slightly open, and his left eye beginning to twitch.</p><p>            “You – you think that…” he stammered, and at Nico’s dead serious expression, suddenly burst into a howling fit of laughter. As he clutched his stomach and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, Will realized it had been a long time since he’d last laughed this much in a single day. He stole a glance at Nico, who sat there with a frown on his face, wondering what could possibly be so funny about what he said, which made Will bend over double with laughter. In his mirth, finding it impossible to stop, he reached out a hand and placed it on Nico’s knee, as if trying to send a silent message.</p><p>            <em>Help, I’m dying here!</em></p><p>When he looked up, what registered on Nico’s face resembled more something akin to shock. Will’s laughter died a little bit and he followed Nico’s gaze to his knee, where Will’s hand was perched.</p><p>            “Sorry, sorry,” Will said, taking his hand off Nico’s knee and collecting himself. His palm felt hot where it had connected with Nico, and he realized he owed the son of Hades an explanation, especially since he looked as confused as though Will had clocked him in the back of the head. “Gods, Nico! You’ve never watched Star Wars!” he said as if that were explanation enough.</p><p>            Nico raised an eyebrow.</p><p>            “I assume this Star Wars is a movie?”</p><p>            “Yes!”  Will laughed, wiping a stray tear that had spilled over his cheek.</p><p>            “I see,” said Nico. “I didn’t know that.”</p><p>            “How could you possibly not know about Star Wars, di Angelo?” Will asked, still smiling.</p><p>            Nico shrugged.</p><p>            “I was born in a different time. I don’t know much about a lot of modern things, science fiction for instance.”</p><p>            Will remembered bits and pieces of information concerning the di Angelo siblings he’d heard the other campers mention all those years ago, and the memory made him feel like a downright idiot. The smile suddenly and completely vanished off his face.</p><p>            “Gods, Nico, I’m so sorry I – I forgot, I mean, I actually knew that about you, I didn’t mean…” didn’t mean to what, exactly? Would Will have laughed had he remembered that Nico had been born in the nineteen-thirties, and spent some time in a time-warping hotel that kept him from aging?</p><p>            No, Will wouldn’t have laughed if he had remembered. He smacked himself on the forehead and glanced at Nico.</p><p>            “I’m such an idiot,” he muttered.</p><p>            “It’s fine,” Nico replied, not looking at him. “You have a nice laugh.”</p><p>            Will looked flabbergasted.</p><p>            “I practically laughed in your face, you should be throwing things at me, not telling me I have a nice laugh!”</p><p>            Slowly, Nico picked up a Reese’s Cup and chugged it at Will. It hit him on the chest rolled off him onto the floor with such absurd mundanity that both of them started laughing.</p><p>            And of all things Will had heard that day, the sound of Nico’s laughter was by far the best. It was quiet and guarded, but bubbly and with so much potential.</p><p>            “You have a nice laugh, too,” he said after a few seconds, once their laughter had died down, unable to peel his eyes off Nico’s smile. He felt so comfortable in his presence it was insane. Nico’s smile still lingered for a few seconds before what seemed like self-awareness finally caught up with him. Nico promptly plopped back down on the floor amongst candy wrappers.</p><p>            Will laid down beside him, keeping a safe distance between them.</p><p>            “So, this means you’re, what? ninety-odd years old?” Will asked, a playfulness to his tone.</p><p>            “Yep,” Nico answered. “I’m an old man.”</p><p>            “Could have fooled me,” said Will, turning to face Nico and was surprised to find Nico staring back at him, like he’d been looking in Will’s direction all this time. “Y-You could apply for camp head counselor at this stage. I hear there’s a whole new batch of satyrs coming along this summer with their respective demigods, we could sure use your experience and wisdom as the oldest demigod who ever lived here.”</p><p>            Nico sighed and shook his head, the darkness that suddenly emanated from Nico caught Will by surprise.</p><p>            “I won’t be here much longer,” he said in a serious tone. “As soon as I’m recovered, I’m leaving camp for good.”</p><p>            Will propped himself up on his elbow, his frown matching that of Nico’s. “Why would you do that?” he said, making a sound like he’d been punched. Will sensed Nico’s sorrow like a coming storm. He wished he could do something about it.</p><p>            “I don’t belong. That’s obvious. No one wants me. I’m a child of –“</p><p>            “Oh, please,” Will sounded unusually angry. “You’re talking like everyone at Camp Half-Blood pushed you away. You do have friends, or at least –“ he stopped, trying to reign in his aggravation. “At least people who’d like to be your friend. You’ll never find out because you just keep pushing yourself away. I’ve never seen you at gatherings, during mealtimes, at capture the flag. You sulk in the shadows like being out in the open is so horrible, trust me when I say it’s not. It feels amazing! You could be happy here. Aren’t you even a tiny bit curious?”</p><p>            Nico looked utterly stunned. Will thought perhaps he’d gone too far, but no. He wouldn’t apologize for speaking truthfully. And it’s not like he’d said anything insulting. It was all true – there were people who’d like to get to know the son of Hades. He knew this for a fact since he was one of them. He’d been one of them for a long time, but he’d never really had a chance to befriend the elusive shadow-dweller. And now he wanted to leave camp? After all that had happened between them, he’d just leave Will, just like that? Will lunged for a Milky Way and unceremoniously yanked off the wrapper, biting off a large chunk and chewing it as if it had offended him.</p><p>            “Solace,” said Nico.</p><p>            “Call me Will, I think we are on first-term basis now,” he replied angrily.</p><p>            “Will,” the son of Hades repeated, as if testing a new sound. He took his time before he spoke again “Why are you being so nice to me?”</p><p>            Will’s scowl vanished, his eyebrows threatening to disappear into his hairline. He swallowed.</p><p>            “What do you mean?” he said, looking utterly confused, he’d aimed angry, not nice.</p><p>            “Nothing,” Nico deadpanned, like he thought better of it. “Nevermind.”</p><p>            “Explain,” Will said in a threatening voice. “Or I’ll curse you.”</p><p>            Nico sighed in exasperation, but relented. “You should hate me. You must have realized by now how creepy and revolting I am after what I’ve –“ he stopped and took a deep breath. “After all I’ve done… to you.”</p><p>            Will stared at Nico, but the son of Hades averted his eyes.</p><p>            What could he possibly say to that?</p><p>            Of all the scenarios that had played in his mind, he’d never expected having to deal with this degree of self-deprecation. True, their first few interactions had been a bit of a kink, not the usual way to approach someone, but creepy and revolting? Those were not two words Will wanted to associate with Nico di Angelo, and he hated the fact that he’d used them to describe himself, especially since he had been a part of a duet – which meant that in any case, Will deserved to be equally judged, and he would not be having any of that on the day he’d made peace with himself.</p><p>            “You’re so dense,” Will noted and shook his head in exasperation. “Do I need to spell it out for you? What part of <em>I let you watch</em> did you not understand? Or are you calling me creepy and revolting too?”</p><p>            At this, Nico’s head turned so fast he could have sprained his neck.</p><p>            “That’s not what I –“</p><p>            “No, you don’t get to speak now,” Will interrupted, getting to his feet. “You don’t get to call anyone creepy and revolting, Nico di Angelo, especially not yourself. You think you’re so worthless, you think you’re so inferior – but you’re not! You’re just as worth it as everybody else! You’re allowed to be afraid and okay, maybe you’re allowed to be angry, but you’re not allowed to call yourself a revolting creep, not without cataloguing me under the same description, and I assure you, I am <em>neither</em>!”</p><p>            “I didn’t mean –“ Nico stammered, getting to his feet, albeit not without some difficulty.</p><p>            “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!” Will yelled, balling his fists as if readying himself for a fight, and he would have continued yelling had he not followed Nico’s gaze to the door of the infirmary and found himself staring into the stunned faces of his siblings Austin and Kayla.</p><p>            “Uh,” Austin faltered, letting his saxophone case hit the floor. “Should we come back or –“</p><p>            Will turned to Nico, who looked like he’d taken a punch to the gut. The son of Hades wobbled on his feet and would have landed on the floor had Will not caught him. He put an arm around Nico and propped him down on the nearest bed.</p><p>            “Are you okay?” he asked in concern. He almost toppled over when Nico’s arms turned transparent as he went slack.</p><p>            Austin and Kayla ran to his side, taking over healing duties and pushing Will unceremoniously to the side.</p><p>            Nico mumbled and tried to shoo them away but the Apollo healers were all over him, checking his vitals and his temperature, feeding him Ambrosia and flattening him onto the bed. When Nico’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out, Will stood on the sideline, watching helplessly.</p><p>            “Will,” said Kayla, glancing back at him as she took Nico’s temperature. “I know what I said before but – a song?”</p><p>            Will jumped in without further ado, placed his hands on Nico’s arm and began chanting.</p><p>            He might have been overreacting, since Nico didn’t seem to be in mortal danger or anything – he’d been in a weakened state as it was, but Will felt suddenly responsible for Nico’s relapse. He’d been so angry at him for a moment, and now, as he watched him phase into transparency and back, he thought back on Dionysus’s words.</p><p>            <em>Do take care of him. </em></p><p>
  <em>            That kid’s been through too much.</em>
</p><p>What kind of a doctor was he, if he let his personal feelings aggravate his patient to the point of passing out?</p><p>            Will began chanting. He had never really been aware of the words that emanated from him while chanting, as he tended to focus on transmitting thoughts of healing and praise to Apollo, but he’d been told he usually switched to Ancient Greek. As he sung, he thought of his own experience, coming to terms with his own feelings, his hopefulness, his acceptance of himself. All the things he wanted to tell Nico but had failed to do so in his anger, in his outrage.</p><p>            The next few minutes went by at an unbearably dawdling speed, but as the seconds ticked by on Will’s wristwatch, Nico’s solidity seemed to return. Kayla sighed in relief and Austin cursed loudly.</p><p>            “Well,” said Kayla, sharing a look with Austin. “I think Will’s got it covered, don’t you, Austin?” she asked out loud.</p><p>            “Yeah,” added Austin, shifting uncomfortably. “Son of Hades looking good to me – I mean, alive and all. Solid. I’ve got a uh, left the water running at the Apollo cabin. Gotta go get that fixed. You good, right?” he asked Will, pointing a hand gun in his direction.  </p><p>             Will smiled, somewhat relieved himself.</p><p>            “We’re good here, you guys go ahead.”</p><p>            Austin and Kayla didn’t need further prompting, they exited the infirmary as if it had been on fire.</p><p>            Ever since he had discovered the identity of that invisible presence that stalked him every other afternoon during his private time, Will had made a point to look for di Angelo in the crowd, whether at the dining pavilion or during camp activities, not that he’d ever consciously ignored him. But he was lucky if he ever caught so much as a glimpse of the elusive son of Hades. For starters, he seemed to avoid all sorts of gatherings. But Will was relentless in his search for him. The excitement was new and raw and simply irresistible. His orgasms were mind-blowing. But he had never really thought past the shallow needs of the flesh. He hadn’t really considered that Nico di Angelo was just another boy, just like himself – one made up of layers and layers of complicated patterns, and perhaps a painful history that explained much of his behavior. He hadn’t even considered the fact that Nico might even have had a <em>reason</em> for peeping in on him. Now, it was pretty much all he could think of. Nico’s humanity and the reasons behind, what with him lying on a hospital bed before his eyes. </p><p>            It left him thinking about the things that Nico had gone through over the past few years. He had the impression that there was so much more than met the eye when it came to the son of Hades. There was so much raw emotion there.</p><p>            That first night, when Nico had stared at him through heavily-lidded eyes, as Will brought the straw into his mouth to get him to drink some Gatorade, he found himself holding his breath. He’d literally forgotten how to breathe. The intensity in Nico’s eyes, even in his weakened condition, had been electrifying, not due to the darkness within them – there was no darkness in those eyes, none at all, but because of the disarming vulnerability he saw in them. He felt like he’d never really appreciated the many intricacies of the human eye until Nico had looked at him from up close. His eyelashes were black and thick. He had a tiny mole over his left cheekbone, no larger than a grain of sand, but Will noticed. Over the last two days, Will noticed so <em>much</em>.</p><p>            Now, as Nico opened his impossibly warm brown eyes, after what felt like half a night, all he wanted to do was sit and listen. The thought that Nico wanted to leave camp, well that was much more than Will was ready to face at the moment, not when his newfound happiness depended so much on whether Nico was willing to be a participant or not.</p><p>            “Will,” Nico whispered, his eyes focusing on Will.</p><p>            “I’m here, you dummy,” Will retorted softly.</p><p>             “You’re…” his voice faltered, and Will grabbed his hand for support, as if it had been Will lying on a hospital bed and not the other way around. “You were right, you – I can’t just, that’s exactly what he said to me, he – “ Nico slurred and shook his head as if trying to scare away a nightmare.</p><p>            “It’s fine, you’re fine. Just a side effect of your Underworldly magic.”</p><p>            “No,” Nico cut in, his voice stronger. He propped himself up on his elbows onto a sitting position. “I’m fine, this – this isn’t a side effect of shadow traveling.”</p><p>            Will frowned, taken aback. “Okay?”</p><p>            Nico solidified in front of Will’s eyes at such a warping speed it left the son of Apollo completely dumbfounded. In a matter of seconds, Nico looked as healthy as a kid who’d been forced into bed by a couple of overprotective parents, when all he wanted was to go out and play with the snow.</p><p>            “Whoah,” said Will, completely at loss for words.</p><p>            Nico took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You are by far the last person who could ever be considered creepy or revolting. I can’t have you misunderstand. I find you perfect in every way, and that… that is scary. I am hopelessly drawn to you. You are the sun. And I am darkness. I’ve dwelled on this for <em>months</em>,” he took a deep breath, but Will didn’t dare interrupt. When Nico’s eyes fixed on his, Will felt himself blushing out of sheer shock, disarmed by the determination on Nico’s gaze.</p><p>            “You are also annoying and incredibly aggravating,” Nico added, which made Will break into a smile. Just the first impression he’d been going for.</p><p>            “Yep,” Will interrupted with a smile. “That’s me.”</p><p>            “What the hell,” Nico whispered, more to himself than anything else. “What have I got to lose at this point, right? I’m sure Charon would be okay with moving to Norway.”</p><p>            “Excuse me?”</p><p>            “Would you go on a date with me?”</p><p>            Will’s eyes widened so much he felt his eyeballs might just pop out of their sockets. He sensed his oncoming blush before he even felt it. By the time the heat had actually reached his face, he’d been too distressed to even attempt to hide it.</p><p>            “A – A date?” he stammered.</p><p>            The son of Hades shrugged, “As soon as my evil doctor allows it, that is.”</p><p>            Will chuckled incredulously.</p><p>            “Evil doctor?”</p><p>            “Incredibly annoying and aggravating, evil doctor,” Nico added, his mouth cracking into a conceited smile.</p><p>            “I’ll get you for that, Death Boy,” Will managed in response.</p><p>            “I’m ninety-odd years old. You should respect your elders, Solace,” Nico deadpanned.</p><p>            And just like that, Will was bending over double in laughter again.</p><p>            And so was Nico.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>What do you think? Too fast?<br/>I promised never to end a chapter on a cliffhanger that wasn’t immediately resolved. Had I not promised on the river Styx, this would have ended a lot sooner than it did. Y'all should thank LadyBoy for that. </p><p>On to more serious issues, I have enough sense to consider that this chapter might be a little controversial, as it explores the intricacies of coming out and accepting one’s sexuality. My idea was to convey Will’s relief at realizing that he was gay, being the sunshine-y person that he is, and how he takes it with more excitement and hopefulness than one would expect. It also explains why he hasn’t been discouraging towards Nico, and is in fact a little grateful to him for allowing him to see past his own established preconceptions with regards to sex, as it’s this that brings Will to the cathartic point of accepting his own sexuality.<br/>I also think it’s super important for the arc in general that Will accepts himself with such ease, and is so positive about the whole thing, because he is INSTRUMENTAL in Nico’s own process of acceptance as a gay man.<br/>We see it in the way Nico’s entire disposition changes from the end of HoO, when we witness his pain and fear and shame at being outed by Cupid (I fucking hate Cupid, what a total asshole), and he’s depressed and angry and maybe even a little suicidal, compared to the more carefree, totally funny and caring boyfriend-Nico we see in ToA, and I BET it was all thanks to Will’s unwavering love and support, which allowed Nico to accept himself and be happy with his homosexuality. For that to have happened, Will needed to be very okay with his sexuality, whoever challenges this goes against canon, I say!<br/>As for all the ‘I am gay’, ‘because he was gay’ repetition, it is meant to convey Will’s own elation and dauntlessness at coming out, if you find it might be a little tone-deaf or disrespectful, I am happy to have that conversation and learn from the perspective of any gay readers out there.<br/>To summarize, I love Will Solace so much. End of rant. </p><p>Unrelated poll: How likely would it be for Nico to let Will watch him shower for a change?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. NICO DI ANGELO II</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nico is released and spends the afternoon looking for mushrooms.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A bit of a filler in between – but if you want to get to the chewy center of the chapter, read on, I promise, there will be something sweet waiting for you.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>NICO DI ANGELO</p><p> </p><p>            Nico’s last two days in the infirmary went by in a succession of experiments to test his solidity as well as his reaction to different kinds of foods. In other words, he’d thoroughly cleaned and rearranged every piece of furniture in the infirmary and eaten every single type of food Camp Half-Blood had to offer, gaining ten pounds as a result. Now, as he brushed his teeth on his very last morning at the infirmary, he couldn’t help but think back on what he had transpired over the last few days.</p><p>            He’d established a pleasant friendship with Austin through music – at night, the son of Apollo would play some jazzy tunes on his saxophone while Nico lay on the floor, his hands waving about as if he were conducting an orchestra.</p><p>            He’d taught Kayla some card throwing tricks, and the archer daughter of Apollo had turned out to be such a natural at it that she quickly started to outperform him, littering the entire floor of the infirmary with cards, which Nico felt compelled to pick up after all the hard work he’d put cleaning the place.</p><p>            But his most gratifying takeaway of the entire situation had been learning how to clean, stitch and bandage wounds, how to calculate the appropriate dose of ambrosia based on the patient’s level of injury and weight, as well as learning the theory behind emergency amputations and limb reattachment, as Will Solace had taken it upon himself to show Nico everything he knew within the short span of time he’d remain under his custody.</p><p>            Will’s custody.</p><p>            Scratch that, his most gratifying takeaway of the entire situation had been learning a copious amount of information about Will Solace.</p><p>            His likes (sitting by the infirmary window with his naked feet propped on the windowsill and catching the sunlight that drifted in, watering the plants, stitching wounds, bacon sandwiches, some band called Alabama Shakes, getting into heated debates with Austin about Star Wars, rearranging the objects inside the medical cabinet as if to check they were still there, recycling).</p><p>            His dislikes (redressing beds, taking inventory, seeing people in pain, the word <em>moist,</em> mayonnaise, and strangely, amphibians).</p><p>            <em>They’re always sticky-wet, hatch in the water but develop lungs when they grow up, they’ve got glassy, beady eyes AND they can kill you!</em></p><p>
  <em>            How on earth can an amphibian kill you?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            They’re POISONOUS, son of Hades!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            Not all of them, just some frogs-</em>
</p><p> <em>LA LA LA, NOT LISTENING!</em></p><p>            His idiosyncrasies (raising an eyebrow before ever other word, the way he liked to suck on the end of his pen as he wrote, how he licked his thumb each time he turned a page of his book, how his eyes sparkled a second before he burst into laughter, how he licked his lips when he concentrated).</p><p>            His scent (coconut).</p><p>            His catchphrase (“I guess”).</p><p>            His triggers (“Isn’t <em>Helios</em> supposed to drive the sun chariot?” which never failed to draw a [violent] reaction from him).</p><p>            Nico smiled as he remembered the pointless conversations they’d had over the past 48 hours.</p><p>            And their interactions – Nico well remembered those.  </p><p>            He remembered the way Will had stood behind him, close enough to radiate warmth into him but not close enough to make contact with him, as Nico practiced his stitching on a few unfortunate grapes (they’d ended up chugging the butchered remnants at each other instead).</p><p>            He remembered how Will had returned to the infirmary looking pale as a ghost after going to the Hades cabin to collect some clothes for Nico, as if not being in direct contact with sunlight for more than five minutes had sucked out five years of his life.</p><p>
  <em>            Haven’t you ever heard of WINDOWS?!</em>
</p><p>            He remembered the knowing <em>look</em> Will had given him, lounging on the chair by Nico’s bed as if it’d been a throne, when Nico exited the bathroom after having taken a shower the night before, as if he had known all along what had taken him so long in there.</p><p>            Nico smirked knowingly and caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the mirror. His face had regained its previous pallor – not that he’d been particularly tanned as of late, he simply didn’t look like a corpse anymore. The bags under his eyes were completely gone, his cheeks had filled up, the gauntness having become a thing of the past. Now, wearing a pair of grey jeans and a black Camp Half-Blood t-shirt with a skeletal Pegasus on the front (and a pair of black boxer briefs) Will had collected for him the previous afternoon, Nico felt almost like himself again.</p><p>            He remembered the satisfied way Will’s eyes had scanned him after Nico had put on his own clothes, which Will himself had chosen for him, as if congratulating himself on a job well done, regardless of the fact that Nico’s entire wardrobe consisted of practically the same type of garments in variating shades of black and grey. Yes, he was glad to be wearing his own clothes, he was glad to see the healthy version of himself staring back at him through the mirror. He really almost felt like his old self again.</p><p>            Almost.</p><p>            In many other ways, in many more <em>important</em> ways, he felt like a completely different person.</p><p>            It was as if that night he’d been returned to Camp Half-Blood by the Fury Alecto had happened a hundred years ago.</p><p>            The anger and despair he had felt that night seemed like a very distant memory, something akin to a legend he had heard about a random Greek hero from thousands of years ago, or even something he’d read in one of the holographic Mythomagic cards he’d collected as a kid.</p><p>            It was hard to recall how distraught he had felt that night, and the night previous to that one, and the many, many weeks and months he’d spent suspended in that emotional limbo of confusion and shame.</p><p>            Because it had been shame all along, he now realized, which had anchored him to a state of utter despondency for as many years as he could remember.</p><p>            When most mornings he’d wake up thinking <em>why am I still here.</em></p><p>And most mornings, after he’d woken up, he’d go back to sleep, thinking <em>let it be tomorrow already.     </em></p><p>            And the same thing would happen again and again, until he felt like a mothball aimlessly drifting from shadow to shadow, unwanted, unable to find any kind of sense to his existence.</p><p>            Lurching from dark corners to dark corners, he’d one day found himself in a bathroom with shared shower stalls, where three campers chuckled and joked with each other after a bout of capture the flag. They’d been faceless strangers, and Nico hadn’t registered anything more than their asses and their limp cocks. But for a time, that had been just what he needed.</p><p>            Until it wasn’t, and he found himself at a different bathroom, coated under a different shadow. Time and time again.</p><p>            How utterly lost he had been. How precarious his situation, he could see it now, as clearly as he could see his reflection staring back at him with eyes that seemed to seep deeper into darkness as his recollections claimed him.</p><p>            The last time he'd seen Percy Jackson, his strong legs carrying him uphill, laughing as he walked alongside Annabeth, Long Island Sound glittering in the sunlight behind them – how he’d wanted to simply drown, halted only by his own knowledge of what awaited him in the underworld had he dared to take his own life.</p><p>            The last time he’d jerked off in the darkness of his very own, balefully empty cabin after having shadow traveled to five different bathrooms, in the weeks following their victory over Gaia, trying to gather and mix together the details of all the naked bodies he’d seen, those naked <em>male</em> bodies he had spied on as those campers showered, how impersonal, how utterly unaware they had been – how the fact had momentarily engorged him as much as it had emotionally drained him.</p><p>            The last time he’d talked to his father, the conversation they’d had right before Nico had found himself traveling back to the over world, had made him feel like he’d been suffocating, asphyxiating in mortification, and that overwhelming desire to simply <em>disappear</em> had taken over him if only for a second<em>.</em></p><p>            How very close he had stood to becoming one with the darkness to which he had desperately clung to all those years, day in and day out.</p><p>            And then, then there had been him.</p><p>            Then, there had been Will Solace.</p><p>            With his glow and his light and his brilliance!</p><p>            With his magnificent perfection.</p><p>            With his lust and his own need for satiation.</p><p>            In those stolen moments when he’d stood in the shadows, watching Will shower, Nico had wallowed in his own desire mingled with hatred and shame. It had been satisfying. It had been sufficiently distracting from his own lack of a real, corporeal destination. It had been enough of a map for a lost traveler. For he had been just that, a lost shadow in a sea of life to which he did not, could not belong!</p><p>            Nico’s mouth twisted, his frown deepened as he remembered, with much difficulty, the Nico he had been up until a few weeks ago. An unwanted. A creep. A drifter. An outcast.</p><p>             <em>There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!</em></p><p>A voice. That voice. <em>His </em>voice.</p><p><em>Maybe you’re allowed to be angry, but you’re not allowed to call yourself a revolting creep, not without cataloguing me under the same description, and I assure you, I am </em>neither<em>!</em></p><p>            How could he have not seen it before? He’d been so drowned in self-loathing and deep hatred that he had failed to register he’d categorically placed Will Solace under the same shadow of loathing in which he’d practically been living all those years. Will Solace! The son of the sun, living in shadows!</p><p>            Ridiculous.</p><p>            Absurd.</p><p>            Moronic.</p><p>            But then, if Will wasn’t a creep, which of course he wasn’t, then what did that make of him?</p><p>            What did that make of Nico himself?</p><p>            All those nights the darkness had almost swallowed him, then beckoned him, called for him to join it in the ever so succulent, empty void of nonexistence, what of those nights? His mouth suddenly tasted like sour grapes.</p><p>            How close he’d been to joining them. How very close.</p><p>            <em>There is absolutely nothing wrong with you! </em>The voice said with much more strength. It yelled in Nico’s mind with an echo of such ferocity he could hear it reverberating in the walls of the infirmary bathroom. He set his toothbrush down and cupped some water in his hand, rinsing the trails of toothpaste that had dribbled down his chin.</p><p>            What did it all make of Nico, now?</p><p>            <em>There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!</em></p><p>
  <em>            They're POISONOUS, son of Hades!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            You have to watch them chronologically, starting from Episode I, NOT Episode IV!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            Mayonnaise has no business in a sandwich!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>            Phaeton was a son of Helios, not Apollo! That's pretty much why Helios was fired and Apollo had to take over!</em>
</p><p><em>            There is absolutely nothing wrong with you! </em>          </p><p>            Nico's reflection smiled and rolled his eyes at him.</p><p>            And to think he'd been considering all sorts of inconceivable alternatives.</p><p>            How it all seemed like a distant memory!</p><p>            Was he even the same person he used to be?</p><p>            He was not.</p><p>            He shook his head and the Nico in the mirror mimicked him.</p><p>            Mirror Nico glanced at him just a second before he exited the bathroom. He looked healthy and corporeal, if a bit clammy.</p><p>            No. The Nico di Angelo of today was most definitely not the same Nico di Angelo of a few days ago. The Nico di Angelo of today could recognize The Dahl (Sonata and Concerto) for saxophone. The Nico di Angelo of today could discern when a card could mortally wound a person if thrown with enough Apollonian panache. The Nico di Angelo of today could stitch and bandage his own wounds.</p><p>            The Nico di Angelo of today woke up this particular morning thinking of how much he looked forward to tomorrow.</p><p>            Tomorrow. What an otherworldly idea. Tomorrow.</p><p>            He had a date to plan, after all.</p><p>            With that thought in mind, clawing at him at his ribcage as it manifested into nerves and a certain degree of excitement, he opened the door and walked out of the infirmary bathroom.</p><p>            Will was standing by the reception desk holding up a clipboard and sucking on his pen. He looked up at Nico and smiled.</p><p>            <em>That fucking smile is going to kill me</em>, Nico thought, becoming very aware of how his arms swayed limply at his sides.</p><p>            “Just finishing up on some last details on your discharge papers,” Will said, knocking on the clipboard with his knuckles.</p><p>            “What sort of details?” Nico asked, coming to a stop beside him and trying to peek down the clipboard, which Will abruptly pulled up against his chest.</p><p>            “Oh, nothing major,” he said conspicuously, “doctor’s prescription, original diagnosis and notes on your development – Dionysus will want to see these, and I’ll need your signature, I’ll sign too, this should break the magic binding you to the infirmary. You’ll be free.”</p><p>            Nico frowned more out of habit than any real annoyance. “Don’t say it like that, makes it sound like I’ve been a prisoner here or something.”</p><p>            Will raised an eyebrow, “Excuse me, Mr. I’ll-call-my-zombie-to-break-me-out-of-here, you were <em>totally</em> acting like a prisoner on your first couple of days.”</p><p>            Nico shrugged. “Changed my mind,” he said, making Will’s smile widen. “Give me the damn papers.”</p><p>            Will pulled away when Nico tried to grab the clipboard.</p><p>            “What are you not telling me, Solace?” Nico asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowing.</p><p>            “Well, there’s this other thing you’ll need to sign,” he replied a little too innocently.</p><p>            “What is it?”</p><p>            “A commitment letter,” Will replied airily, making it sound like just another item in a shopping list. “You’ll have to sign it for me to discharge you.”  </p><p>            “Excuse me?” Nico asked, crossing his arms over his chest.</p><p>            Will took a deep calming breath and put on his doctor face, as if he’d been readying himself for this conversation for a while now.</p><p>            “I know we didn’t talk about this, but as your doctor, I feel like there should be an established limit to your Underworld-y magic, you know, for health reasons.”</p><p>            “Okay?” Nico added, prompting him to go on.</p><p>            “I’ve been doing some calculations, I figured you should steer clear from any shadow traveling for another month, but -“ he held up a hand just as Nico had opened his mouth to interrupt. “In the future, you should be okay to do one trip per week, way and back, unless you’re traveling to the Underworld or the West Coast, in which case you’ll have to rest for at least three days before attempting your return, <em>and</em> refrain from doing it again until at least two weeks have elapsed. Don’t you look at me like that, di Angelo, this is for your own good.”</p><p>            Nico quickly caught himself glaring at Will out of habit, then shrugged. It wasn’t like he’d been planning on going anywhere for the next few weeks, what did a month matter now that he… now that he what, exactly?</p><p>            “Good,” Will said brightly, handing Nico the pen and pointing to a line underneath Item 1, which detailed the shadow traveling quota he’d just described.</p><p>            Nico grabbed the pen and signed, his eyes widening at the length of the document, where he barely glimpsed another 10 Items before Will quickly snatched the clipboard away.</p><p>            “What the – how many of these conditions are there, Solace?”</p><p>            “Eleven, which you’ll need to sign individually,” he replied brightly, and continued without waiting for Nico’s response. “Item 2, food. You’ll eat no fewer than three meals a day, with witnesses. Sign here,” he handed the clipboard and pointed to the second line.</p><p>            Nico shook his head in complete disbelief.</p><p>            “I don’t need to sign this, of course I’ll -“</p><p>            “Sign here, please,” Will spoke over him, then snatched the clipboard away once Nico had signed, leaving him with a look of incredulity on his face.</p><p>            “Item 3, physical activity. Patient will join in capture the flag or any other camp activity at least once a week. Other activities may include but are not limited to archery class, canoeing, chariot races, couples hiking…” he said, his voice catching at the last word.</p><p>            Nico’s mouth fell open. Was Will really doing what Nico thought he was doing? He signed his name as Will presented the clipboard, avoiding Nico’s eyes.</p><p>            “Ehm, Item 4, 5 and 6 state the foods, liquids and general substances you are to avoid, the detailed list is below – you can read at your own leisure, sign here. Item 7, you must return to the infirmary every two or three days for a quick checkup, you’ll find my shifts schedule in the attachment, I’m off on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the occasional Sunday. I get off around 7, and I’m usually very hungry at that time, so it’s a perfect time to grab dinner or whatever…”</p><p>            Nico snorted and signed, unable to peel his eyes off Will and the ridiculous blush that started to creep up his neck.</p><p>            “Item 8, due to a clear melatonin deficiency, patient is required to take in as much sunlight as possible, recommended activities include picnics, boat rides on Long Island Sound, sunbathing in the vicinity of the Apollo cabin…”</p><p>            “You are ridiculous.”</p><p>            “I am not nearly done here, son of Hades,” said Will with a failed attempt at sounding serious, what with his face on fire.</p><p>            “Item 9, emotional support and companionship are recommended in the form of a movie night in the company of friends, preferably those with a medical background…”</p><p>            Nico burst into laughter. “I don’t have many of those, I just know this weirdo who is way too embarrassing to take out.”</p><p>            Will smacked him on the arm with his clipboard and continued.</p><p>            “Sign, sign, sign,” he said, pointing at the empty lines.</p><p>            Nico shook his head, the side of his mouth pulled up into a smirk, and signed.</p><p>            “Last item,” Will said, holding up the clipboard to his face. “Patient <em>will</em> make good on his word and go on a date with Will Solace no later than this weekend, because he has an early shift on Monday and he needs to go to sleep early on Sunday…” his voice came out a bit muffled as he practically squashed the clipboard against his nose.</p><p>            Nico couldn’t help it. He was smiling so broadly his face felt strange. He peeled the clipboard off Will’s face and wrote his name in huge letters, his eyes on Will.</p><p>            “Done, you dumbass,” he said, handing him back the pen. His eyes scanned down the document and caught on to something strange. “Hey, there’s one more Item.”</p><p>            “No, there isn’t!” Will interrupted, peeling off the paper and folding it into an envelope.</p><p>            “Yes, there is, I just saw it.”</p><p>            “You’re seeing things, di Angelo, never a good sign,” Will added quickly. He promptly pulled out a different form and placed it on the reception desk before them. He pressed on it lengthwise to straighten the crinkled corners and offered Nico the pen.</p><p>            “This is your release form,” he said. “Sign here.”</p><p>            Nico craned his neck and scanned the document. Sure enough, the words RELEASE SHEET were printed at the very top, followed by a long, elegant script that must have been Will’s, detailing all the information about Nico’s time in the infirmary, followed by two lines at the bottom. He took the pen and signed on the left.</p><p>            Will smiled a little sadly and took the pen from Nico.</p><p>            “Wait,” Nico suddenly said, making Will stop in mid-air.</p><p>            “What’s wrong?”</p><p>            “I – I really meant what I said. I changed my mind,” Nico said, massaging the back of his neck. “This was good. I mean, fun? I – I had fun. It – okay, so maybe I needed the binding godly command at first but… I would have stayed. I’m – I’m glad I stayed. Thank you, for everything.”</p><p>            Will dropped the pen and put his hands in his pockets, looking away.</p><p>            “Don’t thank me. You don’t need to thank me. You -“</p><p>            “Hey,” Nico interrupted, pulling Will’s right hand out of his pocket and placing the pen on his palm. He held on to Will’s wrist as he spoke, “are you free tonight?”</p><p>            Will’s eyes widened. “Tonight?” he asked, his voice a little higher than usual.</p><p>            “Yeah,” Nico said. “I want to show you something.”</p><p>            Will looked down at the way Nico’s fingers held on to his wrist. He turned his hand, placing his own fingers on Nico’s forearm. A chill went through Nico as he did so, completely at odds with the heat that emanated from Will’s fingertips. He looked up and saw Will staring up at him, the blue of his eyes a shade darker than usual.</p><p>            “O-okay,” Will whispered. “Where will we go?”</p><p>            “That’s a surprise.”</p><p>            “No shadow traveling,” Will added, making Nico smile.</p><p>             They stood like that for a second, until Nico found his own face starting to grow hot. He grudgingly let his hand fall, the tips of his fingers touching Will’s for a second before letting go altogether.</p><p>            “Okay, then,” Will said after a heartbeat. “Let’s get you out of here.” </p><p>            He leaned over the desk and signed his name on the line on the right. A ripple went through the entire infirmary, a vague scent of grapes wafting through the air.</p><p>            “Looks like it’s done,” Will said, looking around the infirmary as if he were seeing it for the first time. He smiled at Nico and waved his arm dramatically at the door. “After you, Lord of Darkness.”</p><p>            Nico rolled his eyes and headed for the door. He put his hand on the door knob and twisted, it made the tiniest clicking sound as it opened wide, letting in a warm breeze and the smell of strawberries from the fields.</p><p>            “Wait,” said Will suddenly. He pulled a bag from the coat closet by the door and handed it to Nico. Inside was his aviator jacket, freshly cleaned and neatly folded. “I took the liberty of having it cleaned, it was filthy when you got here.”</p><p>            Nico shrugged it on with ease, relishing in the familiar feeling.</p><p>            “Thank you,” he said. “For this, for… everything.”</p><p>            “Stop thanking me,” said Will, rubbing a hand over his arm as if he were cold. “I get shivers when people thank me so seriously.”</p><p>            Nico smiled and stepped outside the infirmary, Will at his heels.</p><p>            “What will you do now?” the son of Apollo asked.</p><p>            “Going to the Big House. Got a few things to say to Dionysus.”</p><p>            Will chuckled. “Don’t go getting yourself in trouble, you hear? I’m looking forward to this thing you’re going to show me tonight. I’ll be very disappointed if you get yourself grounded again.”</p><p>            “I wasn’t <em>grounded –“</em></p><p>“Whatever, just don’t.”</p><p>            Nico turned his face to Will and smirked.</p><p>            “See you tonight,” he said, and walked away, hoping to <em>gods</em> he didn’t trip.</p><p> </p><p>            His legs felt strong as they carried him across camp. He walked past the archery practice field, where a few first years were practicing under the strict tutelage of Kayla, who waved at Nico as she spotted him.</p><p>            “Looking good, Prince of Darkness!” she yelled, waving a hand over her head.</p><p>            Nico waved back awkwardly, not used to being addressed from a distance. It felt kinda nice, admittedly.</p><p>            A few minutes later, he found himself standing on the wraparound porch of the Big House, face to face with Dionysus, who sat on a garden chair, sipping on a Diet Coke, reading a magazine.</p><p>            “You’re alive,” the god stated, pushing up his sunglasses and scanning Nico from top to bottom.</p><p>            “Not thanks to you,” Nico responded, taking a seat on the chair next to him. With a wave of his arm, Dionysus conjured up a small table between them, a brand-new deck of cards on the surface. Nico took the hint, peeling off the wrapper, he began to shuffle cards in silence. He could feel Dionysus’s godly eyes on him, but refused to acknowledge him until the hands had been dealt. Fortunately, the god didn’t seem to be in a chatty mood, so they played in silence for a while.</p><p>            He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Nico had started to find Pinochle slightly relaxing, after the many times he’d been forced to play with the god, he now did so gladly, enjoying the sunshine and the warm breeze that rustled his hair. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply – strawberries, always strawberries.</p><p>            “You look well,” the god spoke. Nico opened his eyes and saw Dionysus staring curiously at him, as if he were trying to assess which strange malady ailed him at the moment.</p><p>            “I’ve looked better, I’m sure,” Nico responded.</p><p>            “No,” Dionysus said, thoughtfully. “I don’t think you’ve looked better. You usually look all different levels of worse. This,” he shook a purple finger in his direction, drawing an invisible circle in the air, “is an improvement. Seems like you’ve lost something.”</p><p>            Nico rolled his eyes and shook his head, trying to feign annoyance.</p><p>            He knew Dionysus was probably right. He felt better than he’d felt in a long time, it was only understandable this fact would be reflected in his physical appearance, but lost something? If anything, he gained, a <em>lot</em>.  </p><p>            “Well, I’ve slept more in the past few days than I’ve slept in weeks, and I’m eating, a <em>lot</em>, and if I see another Gatorade I’m going to puke, so that’s that,” said Nico, taking off his aviator jacket and perching it on the back of his chair.</p><p>            “Nightmares?” the god asked, rearranging his cards, as if he couldn’t care less.</p><p>            Nico shrugged. “One or two,” he admitted. “Short. Shards of them. No background music.”</p><p>            Dionysus nodded. “Well, well, be sure to congratulate Will Solace on my behalf. Looks like he’s done a fine job with you.”</p><p>            Nico stiffened at the mention of Will, but tried to remain calm. He took a sharp intake of breath through the nose and relaxed his shoulders, realizing, much too late, that Dionysus hadn’t missed a beat. Fortunately, the god had enough tact not to comment on it.</p><p>            “I do have one question,” Nico said, hoping to steer away from the subject of Will and staring at the god who pointedly ignored him while leisurely sipping on his coke. “What did Alecto say to you, that night she dropped me off at camp?”</p><p>            The god looked at him suspiciously. “You don’t remember?”</p><p>            “I don’t speak Greek,” Nico answered.</p><p>            Dionysus shook his head. “We were speaking Latin, boy. You speak Latin just fine.”</p><p>            Nico looked slightly taken aback. “I distinctly heard you speak Greek.”</p><p>            “Interesting,” said Dionysus, twirling his can of coke. “Well, it appears you were projecting away from the moment.”</p><p>            “Explain?” Nico added, tantalized.</p><p>            “You must have known what was being said and decided not to understand it, mingling up the language in puny mortal brain, crudely translating into a language you claim not to speak, so you wouldn’t have to deal with it. A defense mechanism used by polyglot demigods, you understand.” Nico nodded at the explanation, then frowned.</p><p>            “That doesn’t answer my question. What did she say to you?”</p><p>            “Nothing of importance, I assure you. Merely your father’s instructions. I’ve sent word of your condition. He should not be pestering me any longer I hope. My vineyard’s been producing nothing but sour grapes for the past five days.” He looked at him for a reaction, but Nico made a point to look blank.</p><p>            “Whatever,” he said, hoping his voice was calm enough.</p><p>            Dionysus snapped his fingers and conjured up a plate of grapes. He nodded and beckoned Nico to eat. “You are going through something most gods cannot presume to understand,” Nico took a plump grape and popped into his mouth. “<em>Shame</em>,” Dionysus said loudly, emphasizing every sound with such clarity he made Nico choke on his grape, “is not a feeling most gods are familiar with.”</p><p>            Nico coughed and punched at his sternum. “Wh –“</p><p>            “I see it now,” the god said.</p><p>            “S – see what?” Nico coughed.</p><p>            “As a rule, we steer clear from demigod emotions; too overly dramatic, I’m sure you understand. You demigods tend to be whiny and feel utterly misunderstood – <em>wronged</em>, even. It is frankly unbearable. You, on the other hand, Nico di Angelo, you are the exact opposite of the ordinary demigod, which frankly is the one reason you have earned the respect of the gods. The only reason I have agreed to take you under my personal care. You do not whine, you do not feel underappreciated, you do not strive for honor and wallow in self-pity when you fail to obtain it. You <em>swallow</em>.”  Dionysus took a sip of his drink as if to emphasize his idea.</p><p>            “Okay,” Nico said, not sure if he should be interrupting, but unable to stop himself.</p><p>            “Your escape from Tartarus, miraculous as it was, was possible because of your connection to the Underworld itself – your ability to take in the scenes of death and pain you witnessed. You swallowed them, and you escaped relatively unscathed. The death of your friends, your sister,” the word felt to Nico like a punch to the gut, but he did not interrupt. “the destruction you’ve seen all around you, you’ve understood as part of a natural process, hateful as it is, you internalized it. You swallowed.”</p><p>            Suddenly, Dionysus stood up and faced the fields, his back to Nico.</p><p>            “But you cannot swallow everything, Nico di Angelo. You cannot swallow <em>shame</em>, because there is no shame in death. There is no shame in dying, there is no shame in sacrifice. You are unable to internalize it. Shame is a foreign entity that you cannot bear to swallow. Instead, it sickens you when you try, and threatens to spill back out like cheap wine.”</p><p>            “Why are you telling me all this? It doesn’t make any <em>sense</em>,” Nico said heatedly, running a hand through his hair.</p><p>            “You do not understand shame, just as Hades doesn’t understand shame. As a matter of fact, your father is the most <em>shameless</em> god I’ve ever met,” he added in an undertone.</p><p>            “Can you please stop saying <em>shame?”</em> Nico asked almost pleadingly.</p><p>            “<em>I </em>can understand shame, because it is often the quickest way to madness, and there is a certain madness in you.”</p><p>            “Thank you, now I’m crazy,” Nico added, getting up and standing next to Dionysus, his arms crossed.</p><p>            “You are not <em>crazy</em>,” the god said distastefully, and when he looked at Nico, there was a fiery glow in his eyes, making him look, frankly, a little mad. “There is a certain madness in you, but it is receding, son of Hades. I see it now. I see it melting away, as you stop trying to swallow it, and slowly dismiss it as <em>unworthy</em>.”</p><p>            Nico stared into Dionysus’s eyes the way he’d look down a kaleidoscopic spiral, spinning endlessly into nothing.</p><p>            “I feel like you’re hypnotizing me,” said Nico in a voice that sounded very far away. Suddenly, the feeling stopped.</p><p>            “My apologies,” said the god, turning around and plopping back down on his lawn chair, then putting on his sunglasses. “I <em>enjoy</em> talking about madness, if you can understand that.”</p><p>            Nico shook his head as if trying to return from a deep reverie.</p><p>            “You just said I wasn’t crazy,” he said, facing the god.</p><p>            “Madness has nothing to do with being <em>crazy</em>,” he said distastefully again. “The word <em>crazy</em>, well, it drives me crazy. Be sure never to phrase it again in my presence, or I’ll turn you into a cat.”</p><p>            Nico snorted and sat back down, taking another grape from the plate.</p><p>            “So, that’s it? I’m not… mad?”</p><p>            “You are not mad,” the god acknowledged.</p><p>            “Then, what?”</p><p>            Dionysus thought for a moment. “You are fine. I wouldn’t go as far as to say <em>there is nothing wrong with you</em>,” he said knowingly, and Nico choked for a second time, swearing never to touch another grape in the presence of Dionysus. “But you may return to me, should you face another bout of nightmares. For now, I proclaim you, cured.”</p><p>            “Cured?” Nico asked with tears in his eyes, an uncomfortably wet feeling in his chest, probably from the piece of grape stuck in his windpipe.</p><p>            “Cured,” the god repeated, “from your shame.”</p><p>            “Stop saying <em>shame</em>!”</p><p> </p><p>            It was lunchtime by the time Nico left the Big House. He could have headed back to his cabin, laid on the bed and waited for dusk, thinking over his conversation with Dionysus, which never failed to provide what seemed like endless content for analysis – but a strange feeling compelled him to head to the dining pavilion instead.</p><p>            The place was in full swing when he got there. It had been months since he’d had a meal alongside the rest of the camp, and he could feel the stares of a few campers on him as he walked towards his table. He sat down and a wood nymph promptly presented him with a full plate – olives, feta cheese, freshly baked bread and a few figs.</p><p>            He frowned at the sheer quantity of food before him. Last time he’d sat at the dining pavilion, he’d barely registered the amount of food given to him, but it had certainly been half of what he had been served today.</p><p>            His stomach grumbled as if sensing the presence of food, and he began to eat.</p><p>            As he chewed on a piece of cheese, he glanced around him, taking in his surroundings. The Ares cabin – always the most boisterous one, was crowded with a horde of campers, challenging each other to eating competitions and arm-wrestling on the table. The Aphrodite campers poked at their plates while they whispered into each other’s ears, giggling shrilly and casting quick glances at the Ares table.</p><p>            <em>Sick, </em>Nico thought, <em>you’re practically related.</em></p><p>            A loud cheer came from the Hermes table, which used to be the largest and fullest in times when the gods left their demigod children unclaimed, and now, regardless of its diminished numbers, still managed to create such a racket that Nico had a hard time looking away, as one of the Stoll brothers, Nico couldn’t tell which of the two, tackled another camper to the floor in what seemed like friendly (violent) bantering?</p><p>            He’d almost laughed out loud when a piece of hotdog practically flew out of the camper’s mouth as Whats-his-face Stoll tackled him onto the floor, when he registered a pair of eyes on him. He glanced around and found Will Solace looking at him from the Apollo table.</p><p>            Nico swallowed and frowned, quickly wiping the smile off his face. He simply did not like the smug way Will was looking at him, as if his existence had all been his doing. If Will had been any closer, Nico would have mouthed the words <em>What the hell are you looking at?</em> but, alas, he was too far for Nico to be sure he’d get the message. Instead, he reached out for one of the bottles of condiment that always sat in the middle of the table, and squirted a husky measure of mayonnaise on the edge of his plate, making it look like he’d squirted it over his food.</p><p>            Will’s mouth fell open, his eyes widening in absolute shock.</p><p>            Nico snorted and picked up another piece of cheese, popping it into his mouth and pretending to enjoy it a lot more than he actually did.</p><p>            Will shook his head in disgust and mouthed the word <em>gross,</em> which Nico had no trouble discerning.</p><p>            Suddenly, the sound of hoofs against the stone floor echoed throughout the pavilion, as Chiron got to his feet, getting everyone’s attention.</p><p>            “Campers,” the centaur said loud and clear. “I have an announcement. Today we celebrate the anniversary of the day of birth of one of our campers! Miranda Gardiner, please stand up!”</p><p>            At this, Miranda, from the Demeter cabin smiled awkwardly, but stood up, waving a hand at one of her siblings, who whistled so loudly Nico winced.</p><p>            “In honor of the head counselor of the Demeter cabin, we will arrange a wild-mushroom-picking activity this afternoon!”</p><p>            A few of the campers from the Ares cabin groaned, sitting back down and looking sullen.</p><p>            “Now, now,” said Chiron cheerfully, “I know you are all eager for the next capture the flag, which will be held on Sunday, but do not be quick to despair, young demigods, for we have arranged to make of this a competition!”</p><p>            Nico frowned and glanced at Will, who looked back at him with eager eyes.</p><p>            “We have intelligence that there are no fewer than five –“ Chiron held up his palm, fingers outstretched, “Seven Flower Mushrooms growing in the West Woods, you shall be divided into teams of two, the pair who collects the most Seven Flower Mushrooms shall win tonight’s price!”</p><p>            “What’s the price, Chiron?” yelled someone from the Hephaestus table.</p><p>            “Not another tape of Dean Martin!” wailed Austin Lake, from the Apollo table, who Nico recognized instantly.</p><p>            “Now, now, I promise you, the winner of this race will be properly rewarded, I expect you to sign up as you exit the pavilion, the race will begin two hours from now, giving you enough time to digest your meals!”</p><p>            A loud cheer erupted from around the pavilion, as the campers immediately started to break into pairs. Nico felt himself break into a cold sweat, looking around as if lost in a sea of cyclopes. He had half a mind to get up and go back into his cabin, but another feeling – a distinctly binding feeling, kept him compelled to his seat. His eyes found Will Solace, who whispered a few words to his sister Kayla, and stood up, making his way to Nico.</p><p>            <em>Don’t make me join. Don’t make me join. Don’t make me join. </em>He silently chanted as Will walked closer and closer to him.</p><p>            “We’re joining!” Will announced brightly, taking a seat next to Nico and promptly getting up with a hiss, as if the marble stool had electrocuted him. “Ouch, guess I’m not allowed to sit here?” he said, directing a dark glare at the stool.</p><p>.           “Please, don’t,” Nico stammered back, dreading an afternoon of looking for mushrooms of all things.</p><p>            “We’re joining,” Will repeated sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’ll be good for you, after all the days you’ve been cooped up in the infirmary.”</p><p>            Nico’s neck gave in, his chin an inch from his plate. “You cannot possibly <em>order</em> me to join -”</p><p>            “Hey!” Will said, his eyes on Nico’s plate. “You tricked me!”</p><p>            Nico looked down at his plate and noticed the mayonnaise-covered edges, his food untouched by the slimy white sauce.</p><p>            “Well,” Nico shrugged. “I don’t much like mayonnaise either.”</p><p>            Will’s smile brightened like the morning sun.</p><p>            “My type of guy,” he said, and Nico blushed, crossing his legs and looking away.</p><p>            “Fine,” Nico said, grudgingly.</p><p>            “Fine?” Will asked.</p><p>            “Fine, we’ll join. But I’m not promising we’ll win. I don’t know squat about mushrooms.” He looked up and saw Will beaming down at him.</p><p>            “Great! Meet me at the edge of the woods in one hour, I’ve to go get something!” With that, Will Solace ran out of the pavilion and disappeared in the distance, leaving Nico feeling as abandoned and untouched as the mayonnaise on his plate.</p><p>           </p><p>            It was early afternoon by the time Will Solace arrived at the edge of the West Woods, where Nico had been sitting on a large boulder, a considerable distance from the boisterous pairs of eager demigods, clad in their Greek armors, chattering excitedly about the race.</p><p>            “Hey,” Will spoke, taking a seat next to Nico. “You ready?”</p><p>            Nico peeled his eyes off the cheering crowd and glanced at Will, focusing on the glitter in his blue eyes.</p><p>            “Guess so,” he said unenthusiastically. “I don’t see why you’d want to join in, we could be doing the same thing without joining in some senseless activity.”</p><p>            “Oh?” Will asked, “we could be doing the same thing, as in, we could go hiking on our own?”</p><p>            “I mean –“</p><p>            “That would be fine, too,” Will interrupted. “But I can’t turn down the possibility of winning a prize! I’ve never won anything before, so I always join in. Maybe one day I’ll get a ridiculous tape of Dean Martin or something. I know that would annoy the hell out of Austin, an added plus.” </p><p>            Nico smiled as he took in Will’s mischievous grin.</p><p>            “Campers!” boomed Chiron’s from the other side of the clearing, “the race is about to begin! The rules are simple: do <em>not</em> get killed!”</p><p>            Will scoffed. “Someone almost always gets killed whenever he says that.”</p><p>            There was a palpable rush of excitement rustling through the campers, readying themselves as if actually starting a running race.</p><p>            “GO!” yelled Chiron, nodding pointedly as Miranda Gardiner waved a flag, and the campers took off into the woods.</p><p>            “Guess we should uh,” Will stammered, getting to his feet and offering a hand to Nico. Nico took it suspiciously, but relished in the feel of Will’s hand in his.</p><p>            “Go?” he added, walking into the woods, Will Solace at his side.</p><p> </p><p>            They’d been walking aimlessly for a long time, around large trees and through small clearings. Nico’s legs weren’t exactly tired, but he knew he’d feel just the tiniest bit sore the next morning. The physical effort wasn’t taking too much out of him, but it had been a while since he’d trekked through a forest.</p><p>            They also hadn’t spoken in a long time. Will tended to… wander. He’d brought along a large fabric bag, homemade, by the looks of it, and kept stuffing herbs and fruits into it as they walked, stopping every few minutes, making an <em>Ooh</em> sound as he inspected a plant and stuffed it into his bag before continuing to walk.</p><p>            Nico wasn’t <em>bored</em> exactly, but he had to admit, the lack of monstrous activity made him feel slightly useless – as if he’d been wasting a whole afternoon that could otherwise have been spent slaying monsters, or perhaps… what? Staring at the ceiling in his cabin?</p><p>            No, truthfully, he was glad to be here. He was glad to have come, even if it meant wandering aimlessly through the woods in utter silence, he knew he’d wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.</p><p>            “Nico!” Will suddenly yelled, and Nico reached for his Stygian iron sword.</p><p>            “What?” he asked, running to Will’s side, his sword at the ready.</p><p>            “Is this it?” Will asked excitedly, kneeling over a tiny brown mushroom. “Is this a Seven Flower Mushroom?”</p><p>            Nico rolled his eyes and sheathed his sword, sighing in relief. “That’s just a regular mushroom, Solace.”</p><p>            Will frowned at the mushroom, looking disappointed, but pocketing it regardless. “Oh, never mind then. What does a Seven Flower Mushroom look like, anyway?”</p><p>            “I don’t know,” Nico admitted.</p><p>            “Do you want to uh… take a break?” Will asked quietly, his eyes on a clearing just a few yards away from them, which opened up to the edge of Long Island Sound.</p><p>            Nico followed Will’s gaze, taking in the water that glittered under the rays of the late afternoon sun.</p><p>            He’d learned to associate water with Percy, and avoided it as if he’d been an actual cat – but sitting down on the edge next to Will didn’t sound like such a bad idea. He shrugged in response and Will beamed at him.</p><p>            They sat down over a large, flat boulder. Nico didn’t need a lot of convincing from Will’s side to take off his shoes and socks and dip his feet in the water.</p><p>            As they sat there and the minutes stretched, Nico began to relax into the feeling of the warm current lapping at his calves, the feel of the sun on his face, the warm breeze gently caressing his face. For a second he even forgot Will was there. Until he opened his eyes and glanced sideways.</p><p>            Will Solace was like a solar panel, he realized. He took in the sunlight with such abandon he seriously looked like he was recharging his batteries. The sun kissed the freckles on his face, his golden locks, his eyelashes, making him shimmer in an almost unearthly way. Nico’s eyes ran down Will’s neck, his chest, heaving slow, deep breaths as he took in the sun. Nico’s eyes ran down to Will’s stomach, his crotch, his legs.</p><p>            Nico never noticed before that there were some smaller pockets on the sides of Will’s shorts. Sure, there were those ridiculously large pockets into which he could have stuffed at least a couple of sandwiches, he’d thoroughly studied Will’s pants before, but he’d never noticed the smaller pockets. He also hadn’t noticed the stain of ink on his right leg’s inner thigh. As they sat next to each other, their legs in the water, Nico noticed the way his leg muscles tensed each time his feet kicked at the current. He heard the distant sound of chattering, somewhere in the woods behind them, but he paid them no mind – not when the ever more important sight of Will’s legs anchored his attention.</p><p>            He suddenly had the childish idea of leaning down on Will and taking a nap over his legs, resting his head on his strong thighs.</p><p>            It was a silly thought, he knew, suddenly fixating on Will’s legs, after all the time he’d spent studying him from up close – after those stolen moments in the Apollo cabin bathroom, where he’d seen the entirety of Will, his beauty, his carnal indulgence.</p><p>            Now, his eyes were fixed on Will’s legs and he couldn’t, for the life of him, rip his eyes off those magnificent stubs of meat. He blinked, trying to reign in his own thoughts. He seemed to have finally made peace with the idea that he liked Will. As in, <em>liked, </em>liked. And maybe the tiny occurrence that this wasn’t wrong after all had begun nibbling at the corner of his sleeves, especially after having had that conversation with Dionysus.</p><p>            Hadn’t the god said Nico had lost something along the way?</p><p>            Was it… could it be? The <em>S</em> word.</p><p>            He hated to admit it, but he didn’t feel the slightest bit ashamed at the way his eyes ate at Will’s legs, his gaze firmly set upon them, then going higher and higher, until he reached the area just between Will’s legs and his breath hitched in his throat and he had half a mind to look away because he’d soon start to think of things he’d never thought of while in direct contact with sunlight, and then his heart almost stopped when he felt something hot against his ear.</p><p>             “Nico,” Will’s voice seeped into him, wet with moisture from the heated waters of Long Island Sound. “Nico, stop looking at me like that.” Nico almost jumped back, would have jumped back or even thrown himself into the water, but his entire body froze as he felt Will’s hand press down on his, lacing their fingers together and sending a ripple of electricity through his body. “Stop looking at me as if you’d like nothing but kill me or eat me or –“ he propped himself on his hand, pressing down on Nico’s as he did so, and shimmied in closer. “Like you want me so bad,” he whispered, his shoulders touching Nico’s. “Nico, you’re turning me on.”</p><p>            <em>You’re the one turning me on,</em> Nico wanted to say, torn between excitement and indignity. He’d had half a mind to push Will into the water, but thought better of it and got up instead, quickly putting on his socks and shoes and walking towards the woods, slowing down just as he’d reached the nearest tree.</p><p>            “You coming?” Nico asked, his voice hoarse.</p><p>            Will stood up slowly and took his time tying his shoelaces, glancing at Nico every now and again, his eyes unreadable.</p><p>            They walked in silence around the opposite sides of trees with enormous trunks, breaking eye contact only for as long as it took them to circle around them. Nico couldn’t feel his legs – not from exhaustion, admittedly, he couldn’t very well feel the rest of his body. He seemed to be relying on his eyes, nose and ears, trying to catch every movement Will made in his vicinity – the way his feet cracked a twig in two, the vague scent of coconut mingled with other forests smells, the look in Will’s eyes, every so often catching the light of the sun, glinting wild and bordering on feral, as they centered on Nico’s own.</p><p>            The girth of the trees became thinner as they approached another clearing. Sundown was upon them, the sky over their heads tinted purple as night threatened to cover the entirety of the area.</p><p>            If Will had been turned on, it was <em>nothing</em> to how Nico felt. Will’s mop of blonde hair reflected the dying rays of the sun with such intensity Nico felt like a prospector thirsting for the feel of gold between his fingers. Will’s eyes, his kind eyes, filled to the brim with the ferocity of a wolf, made nothing but replenish Nico with a palpitating desire for pouncing on him – striking him to the ground like a wild thing.</p><p>            They separated as they circled yet another tree in opposite directions. Nico’s palm itched to touch something – anything, and he settled for the rough trunk of the tree as he walked around it, and he almost hissed when he felt the tips of Will’s fingers touch his own.</p><p>            They stopped simultaneously, meeting on the other side, the trunk of the tree separating them.</p><p>            Will laced his fingers between Nico’s, and his heart skipped a beat, just as he saw Will’s eyes flutter.  </p><p>            “Will,” Nico croaked, his nails digging into the trunk of the tree. “I –“</p><p>            “Don’t,” Will interrupted, his fingers slithering up the back of Nico’s hand, seeping warmth into him. “Don’t say anything.” He braced his other hand up against the trunk of the tree between them, and Nico took it in his, grabbing onto him as if he were a buoy and he was drowning.</p><p>            Nico’s eyes drank in Will’s appearance – his golden hair catching a few rays of the dying sun, his lower lip caught between his teeth, his eyes half-closed. He squeezed Will’s fingers with his right hand, and painfully dug his left hand’s fingers into the tree’s unforgiving bark.</p><p>            “You’re looking at me again,” Will whispered huskily.</p><p>            “I can’t help it,” Nico admitted, his voice just as low.</p><p>            “Don’t look at me like that, Nico,” Will murmured against the tree, leaning the side of his face on the trunk and closing his eyes.      </p><p>            “I can’t help it,” he repeated.</p><p>            “Why?” Will whined, his face against the tree as if he were trying to melt into it. “Why me? Why, of all people? I can’t –“</p><p>            “Because you’re perfect,” Nico hissed, surprised at the forcefulness in his voice. Will’s eyes sprang open, as if Nico had said a filthy word. The son of Apollo looked utterly disbelieving, even a little bit hurt, as if he’d been the victim of bullying.</p><p>            “You’re just saying that because, I don’t know, you’re just humoring me, you ended up shadow traveling into a random bathroom and I’m just –“</p><p>            “You’re perfect,” Nico insisted, walking around the tree and taking a step closer to Will. “You are the <em>sun</em>.”</p><p>            Will’s eyes opened so wide Nico could see his pupils dilating. He took another step closer to Will, prompting him to step back into the tree, his back smack against the bark. Nico hesitated before placing his hands on Will’s shoulders, pinning him against the tree, he was surprised no black smoke rose at the contact, as he felt like a smoldering piece of burning coal.</p><p>            “I can’t stop looking at you, because you’re perfect. Maybe you’re not. I actually think you’re a giant idiot. But I simply can’t – won’t stop looking at you, unless you tell me, right here, right now, once and for all, that you want me to stop,” Nico said, glancing up at Will, his head craning up slightly to catch Will’s eyes in his. “Do you want me to stop?”</p><p>            Will looked down at Nico with a strange shimmer in his eyes. His nostrils flared and he suddenly grabbed Nico’s wrist, pulling his palm smack against his crotch, directly over Will’s cock.</p><p>            Nico’s eyes could have just popped out of his sockets. He couldn’t move his hand, as Will held it firmly against himself, but he could feel the bulging erection underneath it, and he’d never, ever felt anything like it before.</p><p>            “Does <em>this</em> answer your question, son of Hades?” Will asked, and Nico could feel his hot breath against his ear again. “Do you not see what you do to me? Are you this <em>cruel</em>?”</p><p>            And just as Nico had been about to melt into Will, just as he’d been about to squeeze his hand and see what effect he had on Will Solace, who stood so openly – so bracingly unguarded before him, a conch sounded in the vicinity, so close in fact that both Nico and Will jumped back from each other as if they had been scorched by their proximity.</p><p>            “Time’s up! All campers promptly return to the main clearing!”</p><p>            They looked at each other, their chests heaving, their eyes on fire.</p><p>            Just when Will finally moved and took a step towards the clearing, Nico sprang into action, tightening his fingers around Will’s wrists and pulling him away from the commotion.</p><p>            “Wha –“</p><p>            “Be quiet and come with me,” Nico commanded, dragging Will back into the forest.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This cannot possibly be considered a cliffhanger, can it?<br/>Okay, maybe a little.<br/>Good news is... the next part is already finished! Just proofreading it a bit. Should be up in a couple of days because I love you.<br/>And I love Nico and I love Will and he's got an erection that needs to be handled asap.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. NICO DI ANGELO III</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Raise your hands if you’ve put out before the first date!<br/>*Will Solace raises hand*</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fair warning: NSFW</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>High Windows Cast Long Shadows</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>NICO DI ANGELO</p><p> </p><p>            “W-where are we going?” Will stammered, jumping over a small creek as Nico pulled him further and further away from the main clearing. In the distance behind them, torches had been lit as night descended and Nico could sense Will’s hesitation at being carried away from the light and into the growing darkness of the forest.</p><p>            “Remember I wanted to show you something?” Nico asked, gently squeezing Will’s hand. “We’re going there now.”</p><p>            “But, where?” Will asked a little panicky.</p><p>            “The Oracle Cavern,” Nico answered.           </p><p>            “What? Why are you taking me there, I’ve been there literally hundreds of times!”</p><p>            “I meant, we are going in the direction of the Oracle Cavern, there’s something I want to show you and it’s not far from there. Just, humor me, okay?” Nico asked as he slowed down, needing to catch his breath, which was coming out a bit wheezy, a common occurrence each time he overexerted himself ever since returning from Tartarus, as if the poisonous air he’d breathed in there hadn’t completely cleared out of his lungs.</p><p>            “Are you okay?” Will asked, his eyes on Nico’s heaving chest. “Here, smell this,” he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small bundle of plants.</p><p>            “What is it?”</p><p>            “Mint, just picked it up a while ago,” Will replied.</p><p>            Nico took the green leafy bundle and took a whiff. The fresh scent of mint traveled through him like a shot of adrenaline, making him feel instantly better.</p><p>            “What the hell,” Nico said, staring at the mint. “How come I never knew about this?”</p><p>            Will chuckled. “Just keep hanging out with me, you’ll learn loads, son of Hades.”</p><p>            They kept on walking in such close proximity that their arms kept bumping into each other’s, and Nico could feel a jolt of electricity each time they made contact.</p><p>            He wanted to just stop and tackle Will to the ground, but then… then what? What was he supposed to do if he managed to find himself on top of the blonde? Kiss him? <em>Gods,</em> Nico thought, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. <em>This is embarrassing.</em> He’d never kissed anyone before. He’d barely even touched anyone before, let alone someone for whom he harbored special feelings.</p><p>            He’d touched Percy once, when they held hands as Nico shadow traveled them out of the House of Hades – but he’d flinched away so quickly he’d almost fallen backwards.</p><p>            Now, he’d touched Will, too.</p><p>            He’d touched Will’s crotch, and it had been <em>hard. </em></p><p><em>            Because you kept staring at him like a dog in heat, </em>he chastised himself, but couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at the corners of his mouth. <em>Because he had been hard like a dog in heat, too.</em></p><p>Night fell as they walked by the edge of the forest in the direction of Rachel Elizabeth Dare’s oracular cave. In the distance, Nico could spot the warm glow of the dining pavilion brazier, he imagined the campers beginning to take their places at their tables, talking about the race, sharing stories about what they’d encountered in the forest.</p><p>            He hoped they wouldn’t be missed, he knew <em>he</em> wouldn’t be, but if there had indeed been more than a few injuries, then Will’s disappearance might raise a certain amount of concern, and the last thing he wanted to do was cause enough panic to call for a search party.</p><p>            “Wait,” Nico said, pulling Will’s arm. The blonde stopped and looked at him quizzically. “We better let them know we’re fine, so they won’t come looking for us.”</p><p>            “Oh?” Will asked, his eyebrow raised. “We don’t want to be found?”</p><p>            Nico smirked and raised his arms, making a few pebbles shake on the ground.</p><p>            “Are you doing Underworld-y magic, di Angelo?” Will asked threateningly.</p><p>            “Just a little,” Nico admitted, and the ground before them split open, making Will jump as the dead head of Jules-Albert emerged from the earth.</p><p>            “Shit,” Will cursed, “I’m never going to get used to this guy.”</p><p>            Nico chuckled, amused at the way Will had taken a step behind Nico, his hands grasping Nico by the shoulders.</p><p>            “Jules-Albert, find Chiron, tell him we’re fine, just going for a walk. We’ll be back before curfew.”</p><p>            The zombie made a gurgling noise which Nico took for an assent, then walked on wobbly legs towards the dining pavilion. A part of him would have <em>loved</em> to see the look on the other campers when a zombie walked amongst them.</p><p>            “You’re not going to kidnap me and murder me in the dark, are you?” Will asked as he let go of Nico’s shoulders.</p><p>            “Nah,” Nico answered, motioning with his head towards the direction of the cave. “Not today.”</p><p>            “Phew?” said Will with amusement.</p><p>            As they walked, Nico looked up at the clear night sky, the stars shining brightly like diamonds in a mine. Smiling to himself, he realized how appropriate it was for a night like this. He’d never shared this secret with anyone other than Hazel of course, who’d made the initial discovery all those months ago. Now, Will was going to be a part of it, and the idea that he’d be sharing a secret, another secret with him was simply exhilarating. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Will’s face.</p><p>            They began walking uphill in comfortable silence, broken only by the sound of their breathing and the occasional owl in the distance.</p><p>            “I feel like I’ve definitely gotten my steps in today,” Will spoke after a while.</p><p>            “Are you tired?” Nico asked, surprised.</p><p>            “Well, I don’t get as much exercise as I should. Usually it’s just the odd hike, since I spend a lot of time in the infirmary, especially after they moved it out of the Big House.”</p><p>            “Could have fooled me.”</p><p>            “Are you implying I look like I get a lot of exercise?” Will asked playfully. “Do I look that good?”</p><p>            “Shut up, Solace,” Nico deadpanned.</p><p>            They reached the small path that led to the Oracular Cave, but instead of following the dirt trail, Nico took a sharp turn left, making sure Will followed close behind.</p><p>            “This place looks spooky,” Will offered, looking around and squinting in the darkness. “We’re going in the forest again?”</p><p>            “Yeah but not really deep, just by those trees that look like an archway,” Nico added, pointing ahead.</p><p>            “What trees?” Will asked.</p><p>            “You don’t see them?”</p><p>            “I don’t see in the dark, di Angelo, I’m not Lord of Darkness like you.”</p><p>            “Hm,” Nico agreed. “Well, you’re gonna have to get used to the dark fast, because we’re going underground for a bit.”</p><p>            “What?” Will suddenly stopped. “I don’t <em>do</em> underground, Nico.”</p><p>            “Just a little. Don’t worry, you’re with me,” said Nico, sounding extremely confident and loving the way his name sounded on Will’s lips. He knew the place well, they weren’t in a monster area, as they stood well within the protected boundaries of the camp, but even if they weren’t, Nico knew his way around, he could have walked there with his eyes closed. He wasn’t afraid of the dark, on the contrary, it made him feel safe, and it was perhaps that which prompted him to reach out a hand and offer it to Will. “Trust me?” he asked.</p><p>            He didn’t know what compelled him to be so bold. It’s not like they were <em>dating</em>, not yet anyway, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that if he offered, if he reached out to Will, he would very likely be reciprocated.</p><p>            Because they were on the same boat.</p><p>            Nico could see in the dark just fine, and so he had no problem discerning the look of excitement that flashed across Will’s face when he took Nico’s hand.</p><p>            “We’re holding hands now?” Will asked playfully, lacing his fingers through Nico’s and squeezing gently.</p><p>            Nico let out a single chuckle (hoping his sigh of relief had gone unnoticed) and squeezed back. “Just until we’ve made it there, since you can’t see in the dark.”</p><p>            “Aw,” Will whined with exaggerated disappointment, making Nico smile.</p><p>            When they walked past the trees shaped like an archway, Will shimmied in closer to Nico, their elbows touching.</p><p>            Under any other circumstances, Nico would have let go as quickly as possible, had he been holding hands with anyone else. Now, as he trekked along Will, fingers laced together, he couldn’t believe he’d been missing out on this intimate feeling for so long. Admittedly, he probably wouldn’t have felt this comfortable holding hands with anyone else – just Will. Because he was attracted to him. Because he had seen him naked. Because he had fantasized about just what it would feel like to be held in Will’s grasp. He concentrated on committing the feeling to memory for later use. For he planned on using it later.</p><p>            “There aren’t any wild animals in here, are there?” Will asked quietly.</p><p>            “Maybe a few rodents, an occasional frog.”</p><p>            “DON’T even <em>joke</em> about that, you hear me?” Will said, his voice a smudge higher.</p><p>            Nico snorted. “I am actually kidding. Not about the rodents, there are hundreds of them, but you don’t mind, do you?”</p><p>            “Mammals, I can take.”</p><p>            “Good. We’re here,” Nico said, stopping in front of a pair of giant boulders that leaned against each other, perched against a small hill, a tiny opening between them large enough for a person to squeeze in.</p><p>            “We’re really going underground?”</p><p>            “Yep,” Nico answered.</p><p>            “Are there any lights in there? A torch we can light or something?” he asked, squinting at the boulders.</p><p>            “It’ll be pitch black for a few yards.”</p><p>            “Just a few yards?” Will asked.</p><p>            “The place opens up later, with the way the moon is shining, it’ll be fine.”</p><p>            Will took a few seconds to retort. Nico could see indecision stamped all across his face, which he found way too cute to be genuine. The son of Apollo must be playing games with him. No one could look this cute in the dark.</p><p>            “Lead the way,” Will said suddenly, taking a deep breath and looking determined.</p><p>            Nico grabbed him by the hand and walked in between the boulders, pulling Will to follow behind. As he had promised, it was pitch black once they were inside. Nico could see well enough, the tunnel stretched inland for a few yards, until he could discern the faintest speck of light in the distance. He turned to look at Will, who had his eyes wide shut, a grimace on his handsome features as if he’d been blindfolded and asked to stick his hand in a box with unknown contents.</p><p>            “Why are your eyes closed?” Nico chuckled, unable to restrain himself. “It’s pitch black in here.”</p><p>            Will squeezed Nico’s hand. “At least this way, it feels intentional.”</p><p>            “Just try to keep up, mind your feet, there are a few animal bones scattered around.”</p><p>            “Mammals?”</p><p>            “Yes, mammals,” Nico affirmed, ignoring the snake skeleton to his right.</p><p>            “This is ridiculous,” Will said as he opened his eyes, looking around desperately for a source of light. “I can’t believe you can see in the dark and I can’t.”</p><p>            “It’s a talent,” said Nico with a shrug.</p><p>            “I don’t wanna sound like I’m afraid of the dark or anything, but I think I know a way to get us some light,” said Will, letting go of Nico’s hand and unzipping his hoodie. “That way we’ll both be on equal footing.”</p><p>            “What do you mean?” Nico asked, following the movement of Will’s hands.</p><p>            “It’s embarrassing,” Will admitted.</p><p>            “You’re embarrassing,” Nico said and Will smacked him on the arm.</p><p>            “I’m serious, not that I don’t like holding hands with you, because I <em>do,</em> but I also don’t wanna trip over a dead body.”</p><p>            “Fine, what do you have in mind?” Nico asked, running his hand through the tunnel wall, the way Hazel often did when trying to find her way underground. He turned around when Will didn’t say anything for a few seconds.</p><p>            “Promise you won’t laugh?” Will asked.</p><p>            “No,” Nico replied, but rolled his eyes at the smoldering look Will directed at him. “Fine, what’s your idea?”</p><p>            Nico almost yelped when Will took off his hoodie and shirt. “Whoah, w-wait, what –“</p><p>            “Shh,” Will hissed at him, folding his clothes and stashing them into his fabric bag, “I need to concentrate.”</p><p>            Nico was glad Will couldn’t see well in the dark, because he shamelessly ran his eyes across his body with such hunger he might as well have been looking at food. Up close, Will was even more ripped than Nico remembered, and he said he never worked out? <em>I was right, I hate him, </em>Nico thought, scowling at his abs, while at the same time, wanting to run his hands all over them.</p><p>            Then Will began to glow and Nico’s jaw hit the ground.</p><p>            “What the actual Hades,” Nico gasped, taking a step back.</p><p>            Will’s entire body looked like a giant lightbulb, the glow was gentle enough, but Nico had to shield his eyes for a second – he could sense his pupils shrinking at the sudden burst of light. It took him a few seconds until he could focus on Will, who, Nico was even more surprised to see, looked utterly mortified. His eyes were downcast, and he ran a hand up and down his arm.</p><p>            “Wow,” Nico breathed, taking a step closer to Will who was pointedly looking at his feet.</p><p>            “Stop,” Will replied, the glow around his face turning slightly red. “Just don’t laugh, okay?”</p><p>            “I’m not, I –“ Nico said, walking around Will as if he’d been inspecting a Christmas tree for purchasing. “Is this – is this an Apollo thing?” he asked, completely dumbfounded.</p><p>            Will shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe? It certainly doesn’t come from my mother’s side of the family.”</p><p>            “Can Austin and Kayla… you know, glow?”</p><p>            “Dunno,” Will admitted. “Never asked.”</p><p>            “Wow,” Nico breathed in, carefully inspecting Will’s clavicle and shoulders from up close. “Sorry, I – I don’t mean to stare, it’s just…”</p><p>            Will looked at Nico with sad eyes. “It’s fine, this is a completely different kind of staring you’re doing at the moment. Like you’re looking at a circus freak or something.“</p><p>            “Hey,” Nico scowled. “Don’t talk about yourself like that. You are not a circus freak.”</p><p>            Will shrugged, as if no matter what Nico said, he’d already made up his mind about what he really was. The thought made Nico angry all of a sudden.</p><p>            Because it was perfectly okay for Nico to feel like a creep, but it was not okay for Will to think of himself as a freak? Nico shook his head, painfully aware of the double standard. Will Solace glowed before him in all his golden glory, like a beacon in the dark, literally, and the fact that he couldn’t see it – that he failed to acknowledge the miracle that was his own existence…</p><p>            <em>No, we can’t have that. </em></p><p>Will sighed and dropped his arms to his sides. “Can we go on? I can see just fine now,” he said, taking a few steps further into the tunnel.</p><p>            “Wait,” Nico stopped him, “Will.”</p><p>            “Hm?” Will replied without looking at him.</p><p>            “If I’m not allowed to call myself a creep, then you’re not allowed to call yourself a freak, understand?” he said forcefully, phrasing the words carefully to emphasize his irritation.</p><p>            Will chuckled humorlessly. “Okay, son of Hades,” he said in a mocking voice, like he didn’t plan on taking him seriously at all.</p><p>            “Stop that,” Nico insisted, grabbing Will by the arm and whipping him around to face him. Why did Will look so abashed by his power? Nico found it honestly incredible and so, so appropriate for him. Will was a walking metaphor for light and sunshine and everything that creates life and gives out warmth. Why couldn’t he see it?</p><p>            “I know I look stupid okay, you don’t have to pretend,” said Will, trying to pull away from Nico.</p><p>            Which honestly felt like the last straw.</p><p>            “Do you want to know ‘why you’?” Nico said suddenly, getting Will’s attention. The blonde looked sideways at Nico, suspiciously.</p><p>            “What do you mean?” he asked.</p><p>            “Just a while ago, in the forest, you asked me ‘why you?’,” he said, dropping Will’s hand and crossing his arms over his chest. Will squinted, as if trying to remember what exactly Nico was talking about.</p><p>            “You said, I probably just shadow traveled to a random bathroom and just settled there, and then you wanted to know <em>why you</em>, remember?”</p><p>            Will’s eyes widened in recognition.</p><p>            “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you -“</p><p>            “And then I said I can’t stop staring at you. Do you remember that?”</p><p>            “I remember, I remember just –“</p><p>            “I didn’t know at first. All those weeks ago, I honestly didn’t know why I kept coming back. I thought I hated you,” Nico said, running a hand through his hair, then throwing it into his pocket. “I thought maybe I was jealous of you? You’re everything I’m not. You’re popular and outdoorsy and –“ he held up a hand when Will opened his mouth. “Don’t argue with me, you are all those things.”</p><p>            Will harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest.</p><p>            He had hated him, or at least, he thought that’s what that was. Hate mingled with lust and a covetous ferocity which kept incentivizing his visits to the Apollo cabin bathroom. And he’d also hated himself for it, and he probably would have gone on hating and hating until he couldn’t take it any longer and finally exploded – had it not been for Will. Had it not been for the way Will Solace shifted his misconceptions with regards to himself – and sexual reciprocity. Just the thought of Will reciprocating his desire send sparks flying all over Nico’s brain. He’d been in the metaphorical cave of his own despair until Will Solace brought him out of the darkness.  </p><p>            “You are the sun, Will,” said Nico in a quiet voice. He’d been focusing on Will’s shoes for a moment, then he glanced up at Will’s face, where he saw pure shock.</p><p>            “W-what do you mean?” Will whispered, dropping his arms to his sides, his face glowing red.</p><p>            Nico shrugged. “I don’t mean anything other than that. And this,” he motioned at Will with a wave of his hand, “this just proves my point. You glow... Like the sun. You know? And then, you’re also hot... Like the sun.” Nico stopped talking abruptly, realizing how stupid he must sound. He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “What am I even saying!?” he mumbled, dragging a hand across his face. “Just, don’t call yourself a freak anymore okay?”  </p><p>            Will looked like a gaping fish out of the water, opening and closing his mouth as if unable to make up his mind if he wanted to speak or remain quiet, utterly at loss for words. Nico kicked a pebble and followed it with his eyes as it ricocheted off the wall behind Will.</p><p>            “I’m hot?” Will asked quietly, his eyes unfocused, the ghost of a smile appearing on his face. “Like the sun?” he added, his voice growing louder, lighter. Then he burst into laughter.</p><p>            As much as Nico liked the sound of Will’s laughter, he couldn’t help but frown at being the butt of the joke.</p><p>            “Let’s just go,” he said, wishing they were back in darkness and Will couldn’t see the blush that Nico <em>knew</em> had begun to spread across his face.</p><p>            “Nico!” managed Will between gasps for breath, throwing his arm around Nico’s shoulders, almost making Nico’s knees buckle over. “What are you doing to me?!” he cackled, bracing himself on Nico for support.</p><p>            “Solace,” said Nico through gritted teeth, very aware of the way Will’s naked torso stuck to his own shirt. “You’re being ridiculous again.” He wanted to elbow him in the ribs if only to stop the tingling sensation that began creeping down his own abdomen at their proximity. He’d never really considered the possibility of coming in direct contact with Will’s naked skin. And now… and now…  </p><p>            Now, Will did something very unexpected.</p><p>            He cupped Nico’s face with his free hand and pulled him into a quick kiss.</p><p>            Nico’s eyes widened, his heart almost coming to a stop.</p><p>            Will kissed him and smiled against Nico’s lips, closing his eyes and resting his forehead directly against Nico’s.</p><p>            Nico’s eyes had a hard time focusing on Will, who stood so close to him, glued as they were at the forehead, that for a second, all he could see was the tip of Will’s nose.</p><p>            Then he braced himself, took a deep breath and pulled Will in for another kiss.</p><p>            And Will kissed him back.</p><p>            And for someone who’d never done this before, Nico felt like kissing was the easiest thing in the world, like, who would have thought it would be as simple as pressing your mouth against someone else’s? It also didn’t feel anything like he thought it would. It wasn’t something animalistic and barbaric and wet. It was definitely new and exhilarating and had very much the potential of becoming addictive, but it was also very innocent and quick and dry. His lips pressed against Will’s bottom lip a little awkwardly, but his mind felt like exploding. He could have just stood like that for at least another hour, until Will’s mouth broke into a smile once again.</p><p>            “I’m hot,” he whispered against Nico’s mouth.</p><p>            Nico would have rolled his eyes but his eyelids felt heavy. His hand was firmly hooked around the back of Will’s neck and his fingers itched to touched below, to run the pads of his fingertips down the length of Will’s back.</p><p>            And he knew with the upmost certainty, that he would never get tired of kissing Will Solace. He had tasted forbidden fruit, and there was no going back.</p><p>            “You’re an idiot,” Nico whispered, but smiled when Will pressed his lips against Nico’s cheek in a chaste kiss. Then, they broke apart.</p><p>            Will was glowing red across his chest and neck, which Nico found only fair, seeing as he was probably blushing too.</p><p>            <em>For a pair of perverts, we are a real couple of dorks,</em> thought Nico, running a hand through his hair, wondering when he could kiss him again but eager to take him deeper into the cave.</p><p>            “Shall uh, shall we go on? I still want to show you something, before you make me forget my own name,” said Nico taking a step forward.</p><p>            “Because I’m hot?” asked Will playfully, walking alongside him.</p><p>            With Will glowing merrily as they walked, the tunnel seemed like a completely different place to Nico. Perhaps due to the fact that he was able to discern the color of the rocks on the walls, perhaps due to the present company – most likely the latter. He turned to look at Will every so often, and he was reminded of their walk in the forest just earlier that afternoon. A certain feral feeling had returned to him, and now that they had kissed, he couldn’t wait to do it again.</p><p>            “We’re here,” said Nico, as they stepped into a large chamber with a massive opening to the right from which moonlight poured in like liquid silver. The opening gaped like a mouth yawning into Long Island Sound, directly above the water glittering under the light of the moon. Will’s eyes focused on the opening and he practically ran towards it, careful not to step over the place where the ground ended.</p><p>            “What in the name of all that is sacred –“ he gasped, looking down. It was as if the chamber in which they currently stood had been carved on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Will looked down and took a step back. “I thought we were underground! How far up are we?” he asked.</p><p>            Nico walked closer to him, looking down at the water. “About fifty yards?” Nico ventured a guess. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you,” he said, grabbing onto Will’s arm and pulling him away from the cliff, “look behind you.”</p><p>            Will peeled his eyes off the long drop underneath and turned to look at the cave itself, and his mouth fell open.</p><p>            “Nico,” he gasped, walking towards the center of the cave and looking around, his eyes wide. “Are these diamonds?”</p><p>            Hazel had been the one to find the cave first, she’d followed a strange trail starting from the Oracular Cavern which had a distinctive metallic call, metallic and something else, like a hyper concentrated diamond or something, at least, that’s how she’d explained it to Nico.</p><p>            “Diamonds, crystals, gems, gold, silver, you name it,” replied Nico, looking around the cave with his hands in his pockets, a satisfied glint in his eyes.</p><p>            “My gods, it’s like a pirate treasure cave!” said Will, his mouth open.</p><p>            Nico smiled, he had once <em>loved</em> pirates, he wondered why he hadn’t made the connection before. </p><p>            The back area was entirely covered in purple crystals – amethyst, quartz, tanzanite and other precious stones were encrusted so thickly on the walls the entire place glinted bright purple, shimmering like the stars on a cloudless night. The floor was covered in what Will now saw were golden nuggets and silver pebbles, completely formed, with polished shapes and tantalizingly bright. Scattered by the walls were other sorts of precious stones, which Will seemed to recognize, as he mouthed their names as his eyes scanned the area.</p><p>            “Nico!” he gasped, looking at him as if he’d only noticed he was there. “There must be like <em>a billion</em> dollars’ worth of precious stones in here!”</p><p>            Nico snorted, kicking a gold nugget to the nearest corner, where it settled between a bed of sapphires. “Maybe in <em>that</em> corner alone, it’s hard to calculate the actual value of the entire cave, most of these rocks are uncut, but you can’t recognize them ‘cause they look like regular rocks,” he pointed around the floor of the cave, “that’s them right there, the diamonds. But it’s fair to say this is probably the most valuable piece of land in the entire country, if not the world.” Will’s jaw should have dislocated, by Nico’s calculations, what with the way it kept dropping further and further down.</p><p>            “And nobody knows about this?” he asked.</p><p>            “Well, there’s me, Hazel, and now you.”</p><p>            Will looked at Nico, his eyes glinting like sapphires.</p><p>            “At the risk of sounding repetitive,” Will began. “Why me?”</p><p>            Nico shrugged. “As a thank you, for all you’ve done for me these last few days. I can’t let you take any of them, we’re still not sure if they are cursed, but you can come here anytime you want. I come here sometimes on my own to think.”  </p><p>            “It’s beautiful,” Will whispered. And Nico wanted to argue that it was nothing compared to Will, standing before him shirtless and perfect and glowing faintly. More beautiful than any diamond-encrusted cave in the world.</p><p>            “Yep,” he said, his eyes on Will. “I’m glad you like it,” Nico added, his gaze slipping down Will’s body.</p><p>            It could have been the flirting they’d been doing for the past few days, of the fact that he didn´t fear not being reciprocated anymore, but Nico did not flinch back when Will took two, three, four quick steps in his direction and pulled him by the shirt, smashing their mouths together.</p><p>            Nico reacted on instinct, opening his mouth and running his fingers through Will’s hair.</p><p>            <em>This, </em>he thought. <em>This is kissing.</em></p><p>Will’s tongue licked a circle inside Nico’s mouth.</p><p>            <em>This is what kissing should feel like.</em></p><p>Will’s hands snaked around Nico’s waist.</p><p>            <em>This is exactly what kissing should be. </em></p><p>Sloppy and desperate. Animalistic. Barbaric. Wet.  </p><p>Nico felt himself taking a few steps back as Will pressed against him, until his back hit the wall. He placed his hands over Will’s chest, and just as Will tilted his head to deepen the kiss, Nico flipped them around, pushing Will against the wall and leaning into his body.</p><p>            “Ah,” Will gasped in surprise, but quickly recovered, looking at Nico with such intensity his eyes turned an entire shade darker.  </p><p>When Nico kissed him again, he ran his hands down Will’s torso, then pulled him closer by the hem of his jeans.</p><p>            Despite never having had any kind of sexual experience before, Nico had known all along that when he did, <em>if</em> he ever did, he’d be the one calling the shots – because he knew enough, he’d seen enough to know what he wanted, what he’d like to do and have done to him.</p><p>            And what he wanted was, and had always been, a cock in his mouth – more specifically, Will’s cock in his mouth.</p><p>            He could feel Will’s strong hands running down his back, his head tilted to the side as he invaded Nico’s mouth, as if he’d had an agenda of his own, but when Nico stuck out his knee to press his thigh against Will’s crotch, the blonde hissed and broke the kiss, not in pleasure but in clear pain. He turned around and saw a large pointy crystal sticking out the wall, into which Nico had been about to stab him.                       </p><p>            Their eyes met and they smiled at each other awkwardly.</p><p>            Will stepped away from the wall and placed his hands over Nico’s face, bringing him close one more time, kissing him gently and pressing their foreheads together – Nico began to take notice of Will’s intimate idiosyncrasies.</p><p>            (The way he likes to touch foreheads when making out.)</p><p>            “Gods, Nico,” he whispered, their lips so close Nico could feel Will’s breath on his mouth. “I’ve thought about this for so long now, like, I’ve been dreaming about this,” he said and kissed him again. “You’re all I think about,” he kissed him again. “I can barely get a grip on myself when you’re around me.” Kiss. “When you look at me.” Kiss.</p><p>            “Uh-huh,” Nico agreed, as his hand slid down the front of Will’s pants and closed it around his cock. It was just the way Nico had imagined, long and hard and heavy in his hand. Will moaned quietly and bit Nico’s lower lip.</p><p>            “I’m so glad you were sent to my infirmary,” Will said and smiled before closing his lips around Nico’s, his hands firmly clasped over Nico’s ears, controlling their proximity.</p><p>            “Uh-huh,” Nico repeated, focusing on moving his lips and his hand at the same time, which he found harder than he’d anticipated.</p><p>            “I’m so glad you went into my bathroom,” Will said as he deepened the kiss. “I’m so glad you’re a raging stalking pervert.”</p><p>            “Uh-huh,” Nico assented. <em>The fabric of these pants is deceitfully thick, </em>he thought to himself, scratching at it with his fingernails.</p><p>            “Are you listening to me?” Will asked, closing his eyes and letting out a little moan through his smile, sounding only a little annoyed and a lot amused.</p><p>            “Uh-huh,” Nico replied, tightening his hold on Will’s cock.</p><p>            “I feel like you’re blatantly ignoring me,” said Will playfully.          </p><p>            “Nope,” Nico denied the accusation weakly, stroking him up and down.</p><p>            “Nico!” Will whined, pulling him by the shirt.</p><p>            “I –“ stammered Nico, clasping his free hand around Will’s neck, then running it down his chest. “I’ve obviously wanted you, for ages,” he admitted quietly, biting down on his lower lip, both hands roaming across Will’s front – his crotch, his abs, his chest, his shoulders. He felt Will’s fingers close in around his elbows.</p><p>            “Nico…” Will complained, but obviously enjoying the feeling of Nico’s hands on his chest.</p><p>            “Why, William Andrew Solace,” said Nico, leaning in and whispering into Will’s ear, who shivered at the use of his full name. “I’ve wanted you for longer, <em>way</em> longer than you’ve wanted me. I’ve wanted to do things to you that you wouldn’t believe. So shut the fuck up and let me <em>finally</em> do my thing.”</p><p>            Will raised his eyebrows. “What’s your thing?”</p><p>            Nico smiled, a full underworld smirk that had Will gulping.</p><p>            “Do you still trust me?” he asked, his eyes fixed on Will’s, his hands running down his abs towards the front button of his pants.</p><p>            “Uh…” Will swallowed. “Yeah?” he retorted. His eyes followed Nico’s hands and his eyes widened at the realization of what Nico wanted to do.</p><p>            “Then do me a favor and be quiet,” said Nico, getting to his knees and mouthing the area over Will’s crotch, biting at the fabric of his pants.</p><p>            “Oh,” Will gasped, his hands gripping Nico by the shoulders. “<em>Oh.”</em></p><p>For a split second, Nico regretted wearing jeans that were torn at the knees, he could feel the tiny little uncut diamonds digging painfully into his skin, but the discomfort disappeared into the back of his mind the moment he felt the mound in the front of Will’s pants with his mouth.           </p><p>             He began running his hands up and down Will’s legs, mouthing wolfishly at the area, digging his teeth into the thick fabric hard enough to make Will hiss but not hard enough to hurt him. At least he hoped so. Even though he was doing this more for himself than anything else, he also didn’t want Will to experience anything but full pleasure.</p><p>            Will’s hands found Nico’s neck. He ran a finger across Nico’s jawline, pulling his long black hair behind his ears tenderly.</p><p>            “I can’t believe this is happening,” Will whispered excitedly.</p><p>            Nico popped open the button of Will’s pants and pulled down the zipper, releasing Will’s erection still covered by his briefs. He could smell a scent that was purely Will – husky and slightly sweaty, a hint of coconut. He could discern the tip of Will’s cock from under his underwear and without hesitation, Nico took it in his mouth, fabric and all. Will’s knees buckled slightly, forcing Nico to strengthen his grasp on the back of Will’s thighs.</p><p>            “Ah,” Will moaned prompting Nico to continue.</p><p>            Nico closed his eyes and relished in the feeling – he’d dreamed about this, he’d fantasized so many times about what this would feel like. All those times he’d seen Will go at his own dick from afar had provided Nico a perfect map of Will’s naked body, he thought he knew every curve, every sharp corner, but it was a completely different thing to experience it through his mouth. For a second, he thought about exploring the entirety of his body with his eyes closed, mapping it just with his lips and his tongue.</p><p>            When his mouth descended over Will’s clothed erection, his chin bumped against a bulky object and Nico opened his eyes to see Will had slid a hand into his briefs, and how held his cock in his hand, pumping it at the base. Nico looked up at Will who glared at down at him with an almost unrecognizable ferocity, nostrils flaring, mouth slightly open.</p><p>            Without breaking eye contact, Nico pulled on the elastic of Will’s briefs and released his cock into the balmy night.</p><p>            Up close, his cock was even more magnificent than he’d imagined. It stretched a considerable length, perfectly straight and pink at the top. Will’s fingers were tightly wrapped around the base of his cock, providing a more swollen – more enhanced appearance, Nico ran his tongue from base to tip making Will shiver.  </p><p>            When Nico slid the head into his mouth, Will moaned so loudly his voice echoed throughout the cave. He popped it out and gazed up at Will, who’d closed his eyes and tilted his head back. He took it in once again and went deeper. His cheeks hollowed as he pulled out, then took it back into his mouth as far as he could go.</p><p>            It was all Nico had ever dreamed of and more.</p><p>            It was exhilarating and Will tasted so <em>good</em>. His dick weighed Nico’s tongue down with just the right pressure, the shape of the shaft and the roundness of the head seemed to have been personally customized for Nico’s mouth, sitting in an almost perfect fit, and making Nico feel extremely aware of his own cock straining against the fabric of his skinny jeans. But he couldn’t care less about himself, not when he had Will turning into putty in his mouth, not when he had Will’s balls cupped in his hands, not when Will gently pushed deeper into him, his fingers digging into Nico’s scalp. And his moans. Will’s moans.</p><p>            (The way he moans.)</p><p>            It was music to Nico’s ears. What did he care if he got a little excited as well – when Will’s pleasure was all that mattered in the world.</p><p>            Pleasure that seemed to mount with each suck, each lick, each popping sound when he pulled it out of his mouth. Each time Nico peeked up at him, Will had his eyes tight shut, his mouth open and his chest heaving as if he’d been running, making a grimace that made him look like he was in pain.</p><p>            (The way he looks like he’s in pain when he is having his dick sucked.)</p><p>            Then, Nico began quickening his rhythm, sucking faster, deeper and harder than before. He’d been so used to Will’s faint glow that the sudden burst of light that erupted from his body blinded him for a second.</p><p>            “Ah!” Will moaned as he exploded into a brighter shimmer, then died down again but kept lighting up at random intervals like lights on a Christmas Tree, which Nico found to be an extremely useful guide, sticking to what made him light up until Will reached a stable bright glow. He smiled inwardly, wondering if anyone from the outside could glimpse a faint light coming from a random crevice on the cliff.</p><p>            (The way he glowed brighter as he approached his climax.)</p><p>            Nico had long wondered what caused those porn actors in pornos to look so excited when giving head. He’d assumed it was just part of the act. So, he’d done his research and found this particular bit of information. It had sounded so cold and medical at the time.</p><p>
  <em>            The vagus nerve (the pneumogastric nerve) is the longest nerve of the nervous system. It runs from the brain through the face, thorax, stomach and ends in the colon. It lights up different nerves as it goes, causing dread to explode in one’s stomachs when facing unpleasant situations and a rush up one’s spine that feels like adrenaline when excited. </em>
</p><p>            As well as some other pleasant sensations when properly stimulated.</p><p>            Nico knew all this because.</p><p>            Well, because he was a pervert.</p><p>            And now he knew exactly how it felt, when he relaxed his mouth around Will’s cock and the head hit the back of his throat, an exceedingly pleasurable feeling extended down his spine, directly into his own cock. The longer he sucked, the more the excited he became.</p><p>            “N-Nico,” Will moaned, his hands on Nico’s ears, fingers touching the back of his neck, pulling him closer, thrusting deeper into his mouth.</p><p>            Nico wrapped his fingers around Will’s cock and pulled it out of his mouth.</p><p>            “Yes, Will?” Nico tried to sound calm, but his voice quivered with excitement. Will looked down and gave Nico a look that spoke millions.</p><p>            <em>I’m going to come if you keep this up.</em></p><p>Nico smirked and licked a long strip from the base to the tip, his eyes on Will, who moaned and shivered. As he began pumping him faster, he placed the head of Will’s cock on his tongue, excitement rippling through him like a lightning bolt.</p><p>            He could vaguely feel the pain on his knees or the pressure of Will’s fingers digging into his shoulders, as in the palm of his hand, he could also feel Will’s cock engorging as he approached his climax. He looked up and saw Will’s dark eyes on him, his mouth open in something akin to shock.</p><p>            Nico wanted to say something, anything.</p><p>            <em>Come for me, Will. I want you. I’ve wanted you all this time. </em></p><p>
  <em>            Let me taste you. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>            Come in my mouth. </em>
</p><p>But he either wouldn’t or couldn’t say a word.</p><p>            Instead, it was Will who spoke. “Shit, shit, I’m – <em>Nico</em>. Nico. Nico,” whimpering Nico’s name like a mantra, it frankly made Nico want to come as well. “Nico look at me,” Will finally whimpered, a direct order that Nico couldn’t refuse.</p><p>            (The way he likes to talk when he’s excited.)</p><p>            And he must have given a serious <em>look</em>, because it was all it took for Will to come undone. His cock began to pulsate and Nico sucked it quickly, licking circles around the tip and pumping him, careful to keep his eyes on Will’s, until he felt the hot liquid burst inside his mouth.</p><p>            “That’s – fuck <em>yes</em>,” Will groaned, thrusting into Nico’s hand and mouth, releasing his essence in short, quick spasms.</p><p>            And Nico <em>swallowed</em>.</p><p>             He swallowed like he swallowed pain and death and misery. He swallowed like he couldn’t swallow shame. He swallowed every last drop of Will’s semen and realized he wanted more. He would always want <em>more</em>. More Will. More Will. More Will.</p><p>            (More Will).</p><p>            He would have kept on sucking his dick until the damn thing came off and he swallowed it whole, had Will not tipped up Nico’s chin and began pouring over him. He dropped to his knees and thrust his tongue into Nico’s mouth, kissing him passionately, almost violently. Grabbing Nico by the scruff of his shirt, he pulled him closer and tilted his head, lapping at his tongue, and Nico had never felt more blissfully filled – not even when only a few seconds ago, he’d had Will’s entire manhood crammed into his mouth.   </p><p>            And his dick throbbed in his pants at the utter <em>wetness</em> of it all.</p><p>            They broke apart to gasp for breath as if they’d been underwater. Will was panting, his eyes glinting, his glow so bright Nico had to narrow his eyes. He kissed Nico’s eyelids, his cheeks, licked Nico’s lips and sucked on his chin.</p><p>            (How he gets emotional after ejaculating.)</p><p>            And Nico wanted to talk, but Will wouldn’t let him phrase words.</p><p>            He tried a few times, until he finally gave up and let Hurricane Will take its toll.</p><p>             It took a few seconds, but Will finally put his arms around Nico’s shoulders and all but collapsed on top of him.</p><p>            “Uh, Will?” Nico asked awkwardly, trying not to wince at the pain on his knees that now, with the added weight, had become short of unbearable.</p><p>            “I’m sorry, I’m just so… so… something,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by Nico’s shoulder.</p><p>            “It’s… it’s fine, but, do you mind –“ he began, then shifted his weight to accommodate them onto his heels instead.</p><p>            “That was <em>amazing.” </em></p><p>“Will?” Nico grunted.</p><p>            “You were unbelievable! I mean, that was totally different!”</p><p>            “Will,” he hissed a little desperately, his own erection a thing of the past.</p><p>            “What?“ Will complained, pulling back and glancing down. He gasped and jumped up like a spring, his limp dick hanging out of his pants. “Nico, your knees!” he wailed. He pulled Nico up by the arm and began fussing over his legs. Nico wanted to roll his eyes, but when he glanced at his knees and saw blood trickling down into his pants, he realized there was probably not going to be a way to stop Will from acting up.</p><p>            “I’m fine, really,” he tried, but Will shut him up with a glare.</p><p>            “Nico di Angelo, honestly, I love it that you brought me here, loving the diamonds and all, and yes, you give great head, but. Infirmary NOW!” he ordered as he quickly thrust his shirt back on and began pulling Nico by the wrist, stomping angrily, his dick hanging out of his pants.</p><p>            “Will, I’m fine, it’s just a little bit of blood,” Nico said sounding amused, but Will cut him short.</p><p>            “If you don’t start walking, I swear to all the gods I will piggyback you right back into the infirmary!” he threatened, leading the way, Nico smiling as he was hauled into the tunnel.</p><p>            To Nico’s chagrin, Will did manage to stuff himself back into his briefs before they walked out of the tunnel on the other side, his glow turned off. They walked hand in hand, mostly due to Will relentlessly pulling Nico along the way, and no matter how much Nico quickened his pace, Will always managed to walk faster, as if there was nothing more important than getting back to the infirmary as fast as possible.</p><p>            “You look mad,” Nico said with a hint of amusement, not even wincing as they trekked downhill.</p><p>            “I’m not mad. Okay, yeah, I’m a little mad,” Will admitted without slowing down.</p><p>            “You usually look way happier after you’ve jerked off,” said Nico nonchalantly, egging for a reaction.</p><p>            Will glanced darkly back at him and arched his eyebrow.</p><p>            “Pervert,” he said with a smirk, turning his back to him. “Sneaking, stalking, dirty little son of Hades.”</p><p>            “You didn’t seem to mind just a few minutes ago,” Nico teased.</p><p>            “And I’m about to take it all back, unless you pick up the pace.”</p><p>            “Well, it’s a little hard to walk when you’re sporting wood…” he said, and let the words sink in. Will slowed down as if someone had hit slo-mo.</p><p>            He turned to look at Nico as if he’d only just spotted a T-Rex up ahead and wanted to avoid any sharp movements.</p><p>            “Oh,” he said stupidly, his mouth hanging open, his eyes scanning Nico up and down. “I’m… I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize – come!” he exclaimed, pulling Nico into a nearby bush.</p><p>            Nico broke into a solid, loud fit of laughter.</p><p>            “And just where do you think you’re taking me now?” he asked loudly.</p><p>            “Just, trust me, okay? I’ll take care of you,” Will said in all seriousness that had Nico snorting so loud his throat hurt.</p><p>            “I’m kidding, Will! I’m not hard, it was a joke!” he cried gasping for breath.</p><p>            Will pulled him up against a tree looking aghast. He put his hand on Nico’s crotch as if to check for himself, then gave him a murderous look.</p><p>            “You, you –“ he stammered, pointing an accusatory finger at Nico’s face. “You tricked me!”  </p><p>             “You’re being ridiculous!” said Nico.</p><p>            “<em>You’re</em> being ridiculous!” Will retorted.</p><p>            “Hey, hey,” Nico said, raising up both hands in defeat. “You win, okay? I’m wrong, you’re right, let’s just go, I was only teasing you.”</p><p>            Will harrumphed and crossed his arms, but looked at Nico uncertainly.</p><p>            “I swear I’m not hard, you can feel again if you don’t believe me,” Nico offered.</p><p>            “Why aren’t you hard?” Will asked, now sounding a little offended.</p><p>            Nico opened his mouth but no sound came out.</p><p>            “Well?” Will added impatiently.</p><p>            “I – I <em>was</em>, like, in there,” he motioned to the way they’d come from with a nod. “But now, the moment’s kind of passed, I guess.”</p><p>            Will nodded slowly, a frown on his face.</p><p>            “Uh,” Nico began. “Can we go? My knees do kind of hurt now –“</p><p>            “Let’s go back to my cabin,” Will deadpanned.</p><p>            There was silence for a few seconds.</p><p>            “Why?” asked Nico, and it was Will’s turn to roll his eyes at him.</p><p>            “We have all the supplies we need there.”</p><p>            “Yeah but, so does the infirmary…”</p><p>            “It’s Kayla’s shift now, I – I want to be alone with you,” Will whispered, his hands in his pockets.</p><p>            Nico narrowed his eyes, then smirked. “And I thought <em>I</em> was the pervert.”</p><p>            “Shut up, di Angelo. Let’s go,” he said, and stomped off without waiting for Nico.</p><p> </p><p>            They walked past the dining pavilion in a hurry, trying their best not to be spotted, but there really was a very slim chance they would be, as Miranda Gardiner’s birthday party seemed to be in full bloom – she’d been perched up on a makeshift throne made of sturdy looking weeds, wearing a crown of roses. Chiron stood by, giving out birthday hats and even Dionysus sat on the sideline, digging into birthday cake with gusto. Nico averted his eyes, somehow sure the god would spot him instantly if he so much as glanced up from his plate.</p><p>            With the tiniest bit of hesitation, he conjured up a small shadow around him and Will as they walked past, just to be sure, and vowed never to tell Will unless he directly asked about it.</p><p>            When they reached the Apollo cabin, the distant sound of singing in the background, Will suddenly stopped and Nico walked into him.</p><p>            “Ow, what –“ he started, but was instantly silenced by Will’s lips on his own.</p><p>            “Mm,” Will moaned into Nico’s mouth, taking a deep breath through his nose.</p><p>            Nico kissed him back and was surprised to see how easily he could simply melt into Will’s embrace, Will’s lips, Will’s breath.</p><p>            When they broke apart, Will smiled and laced their fingers together, pulling Nico into the dark cabin.</p><p>            “I don’t know what your plan is, but I have a feeling you’re about to get us both expelled,” Nico said with a smile, loving every second of their situation.</p><p>            The place was dark when they opened the door, but as Will took a step inside, about ten braziers that hung on the walls lit up magically, forcing Nico to shield his eyes.</p><p>            “Does <em>everything Apollo</em> just burst into light like that?” Nico winced, but Will didn’t reply, instead, he pulled Nico further inside and pushed him onto an empty bunk at the end of the room.</p><p>            “Shut up,” said Will, kissing him quickly before striding off to a cabinet on the side and shuffling through medical equipment.</p><p>            While Will busied himself on the sideline, Nico glanced around the cabin. He’d never been inside the cabin itself – only the bathroom, and he was surprised to see how much it differed from his own.</p><p>            The walls were lined with the aforementioned braziers, which illuminated the entire room with a gentle, cozy glow, but now he realized there were also several bedside lamps on each side of the beds that gave the room an extra layer of warmth.</p><p>            <em>Too damn bright,</em> Nico thought, aware of how dark his own cabin was, but not exactly hating the golden glow. It reminded him of Will.</p><p>            Then he looked at the bunks – three of them were evidently occupied, one of them – he guessed Kayla’s bunk, was separated by a modesty curtain, most likely to give the girl a tiny bit of privacy.</p><p>            He spotted Will’s bunk instantly.</p><p>            Because it was the ridiculous one with a dark blue quilt with silly ghost-like faces and the words STAR WARS stamped every other inch. Nico smiled and rolled his eyes endearingly.</p><p>            Maybe they could go to the movies for their date. Nico was sure he could find a weird geeky cinema that had weekly screenings of Star Wars. At the thought, Nico raised his eyebrows and sighed – he hadn’t even had time to plan accordingly for their date.</p><p>            And yet, he had sucked Will’s dick already.</p><p>            <em>I think I love him,</em> he thought without registering his choice of words, as a sudden rush of affection washed over him, seriously considering that him and Will were both carved out of the same stone.</p><p>            <em>Perverted, sneaking, stalking, dirty little sons of gods, we are.</em></p><p>On the windowsill, directly above Will’s bed sat a few figurines (he tried not to think about his own collection of Olympian figurines well-hidden but in perfect order under his own bunk bed), and a vase with yellow flowers Nico didn’t recognize.</p><p>            “Stay still, this might burn a little,” said Will from his side. He didn’t wait for Nico to retort when he started dabbing at the cuts on his knees with soaked cotton balls. The pain was a little sharp at first, but Nico had endured worse, way worse, so he didn’t even wince. “Shit, Nico,” Will sighed, reaching for a pair of pincers and a dish and shaking his head disapprovingly. “You shouldn’t have knelt there so long, there’s like a hundred little rocks here.”</p><p>            Nico glanced down to his knees and smirked. “Watch out there, those little rocks are probably worth a million bucks,” he said, making Will tense. “Those are uncut diamonds, right there.”</p><p>            Will removed his hands from Nico’s knees, his eyes like saucers.</p><p>            “Are they safe to touch?” he asked.</p><p>            Nico shrugged, “use the pincers,” he suggested, tucking Will’s long curls behind his ear.</p><p>            Will worked with surgical precision, and after all those days trying to stitch back together a few massive grapes, Nico simply couldn’t help but be deeply impressed at Will’s skills. He definitely was the best healer he’d ever met. His hands were nimble and gentle, his eyelashes fluttering every now and again each time he picked out a particularly small rock and threw it unceremoniously into the dish. Will’s very disregard for diamonds and material richness made Nico want to swoon. How very few people would have tossed such a valuable piece of rock as if it were nothing but grime, simply because it stood in the way of someone’s health.</p><p>            When he was done, Will busied himself with dapping his knees with what Nico now recognized was a mixture of antiseptic and nectar, Will’s preferred additive on every healing concoction. The added nectar made his knees tingle with warmth. Or at least he thought it was the nectar, for all he knew, it might as well have been Will’s own healing presence kneeling between his legs.</p><p>            The warm breath of the Mediterranean Sea seemed to caress his face.</p><p>            Whoah.</p><p>            That was an entirely new feeling.</p><p>            Then Will pressed his lips against Nico’s knees, one at a time, careful to avoid the cuts.</p><p>            “There you go,” he said playfully, his hands on Nico’s calves. “Good as new. Ten minutes on and then rinse, we can’t leave the mixture on too long, there’s still too much dirt inside the cut.”</p><p>            “Thank you,” Nico replied, leaning over and placing his hands on Will’s cheeks, lifting up his face and capturing his lips in his.</p><p>            Will kissed him back and suddenly sprung up, slithering between Nico’s legs, he pushed him back on the bed and pressed down on him, his hands perched on either side of his head.</p><p>            Nico smirked into the kiss, letting Will push him flat against the bunk. “Will?” he asked uncertainly.</p><p>            “Hm?” Will replied, trailing kisses down Nico’s neck.</p><p>            “You <em>do</em> know this will get us expelled, don’t you?” Nico asked, a hint of excitement in his voice, as if he’d love nothing more than to be cast out of camp for indecent behavior.</p><p>            “I’m not doing anything,” he replied, sucking on Nico’s neck and smiling at the way Nico hissed.</p><p>            “I – I’m serious here,” Nico said, his voice slightly panicky, “Will… Will!”</p><p>            “What?” the blonde asked, breaking away from Nico’s neck looking utterly annoyed.</p><p>            “Austin and Kayla could walk in any moment… I mean, I can’t believe I’m being the voice of reason here,” he added in an undertone. “And as much as I’d <em>love</em> to see their faces when they see us in basically a missionary position, don’t ask, just,” Nico stopped and kissed Will at the questioning look he gave him. “I don’t want you to be expelled. I mean, I don’t care about me, but you… you belong here.” With an enormous amount of self-control, Nico pushed Will off and struggled back onto a sitting position.</p><p>            Will looked as if he’d been denied a fantastic treat. He sat on the bed next to Nico, deep in thought.</p><p>            “Okay,” Will spoke, holding up his index finger. “What if…” but he didn’t finish his sentence. He jumped to his feet and pulled Nico off the bed in one swift and very strong pull, then dragged him towards a door in the end of the cabin.</p><p>            “Where –“ Nico stammered, but he didn’t need a response as Will practically kicked the door in and pushed Nico into the bathroom.</p><p>            Oh, gods. Oh, Lord Hades. Oh, Lord Apollo. Oh, Lords ZeusHeraPoseidonDemeterAresAthenaHephaestusArtemisHermesAphroditeDionysus. Oh, the irony. Oh, Lords of Olympus. Oh, <em>gods</em>.</p><p>            Having survived Tartarus, Nico was familiar with PTSD.</p><p>            But not at this scale.</p><p>            The braziers on the walls burst into flames with such blatant force Nico could have sworn they knew, they just <em>knew. </em>The massive stone basin in the middle of the room began spurting streams of hot water as if it knew, it just <em>knew. </em>The golden glow of the flames settled into a comfortable – almost erotic gleam, creating dancing shadows on the walls that practically wiggled their hips as if they <em>knew</em>, and of course they <em>knew. </em>Nico <em>knew</em> so much, he hadn’t known so much of anything his whole life. And Will turned to look at him with such a <em>knowing</em>, shit-eating grin he practically oozed <em>knowingNESS.</em></p><p>“Do we have a safe word yet?” Nico uttered wheezily, his eyes seeing sparks. “No?”</p><p>            Will pulled him into his arms, kicking the door closed behind them and attacking Nico’s neck like a wild dog.</p><p>            “Ah,” Nico moaned against his will, surprised he was even capable of conjuring up such a sound.</p><p>            And then he felt things he had never felt before. For a second, he even wondered if he hadn’t been kidnapped by aliens. Where aliens even a possibility in a world still ruled by the gods of Olympus?</p><p>            Will’s hands roaming up and down his back.</p><p>            Will’s tongue lapping at his clavicle, his Adam’s apple, his chin.</p><p>            Will’s teeth nipping at his earlobes.</p><p>            Will’s crotch smack against his own, grinding up and down.</p><p>            “Fuck,” Nico exclaimed, perching his hands on Will’s shoulders and bracing himself for a rush of emotions he’d never, <em>ever</em> imagined were possible.</p><p>            Because if he hadn’t been sure before, he now sure was.</p><p>            Will wanted him.</p><p>            Will wanted him.</p><p>            WillwantedhimWillwantedhimWillwantedhim.</p><p>            He felt the tips of Will’s warm fingers slip underneath his shirt, his thumbs pressing down and tracing a path up his ribcage, palms firmly flattened against his waist.</p><p>            He would have said something smart, verging on the point of insolence, but his mouth was busy accommodating Will’s tongue, and Nico simply melted into it, wrapping his arms around Will’s shoulders.</p><p>            And just like that – life had meaning again.</p><p>            Lights blew up in his mind the way the Apollo cabin bathroom’s braziers had burst into flames.</p><p>             A flourish of smells attacked his nostrils – coconut, yes, but also salt and sunshine and flowers and honeysuckle and chlorine? As if his nose had been blocked all his life and he was suddenly, <em>finally</em> aware of the endless assortment of fragrances around him.</p><p>            And his cracked, worthless, tainted skin had acquired new levels of sensitiveness. He felt like a newly varnished china vase, slick and untouched and so, so very delicate, he wondered, he <em>wished</em> the trail of Will’s fingertips would bruise him forever, every press, every trace of his fingertips tattooed onto his overwhelmed, uncharted skin.</p><p>            He didn’t quite register <em>when </em>exactly Will had peeled off Nico’s shirt, he didn’t know at what point he had stood half-bare in front of him, or when Will had pressed onto Nico so far as to have him practically bent over backwards – until he felt a sharp, powerful nip on his nipple that had him reeling and thinking foggily of his vagus nerve.</p><p>            “Are you hard now?” Will whispered huskily, dragging his index fingers around Nico’s waist, making a beeline for the button of his pants. “We need to get those knees rinsed right about now. And just so you know, there’s nothing better than a nice, hot shower for such occasions.”</p><p>            Nico wanted to laugh, but the ridiculous sound that came out of his mouth sounded a lot more like a whimper.</p><p>            “Will you let <em>me</em> watch you shower, Nico di Angelo?” asked Will, emphasizing every word, dragging his tongue around Nico’s nipple.</p><p>            “Ah!” Nico moaned, biting his lip hard, trying to stop himself from making such embarrassing sounds, but there was no use, because Will had him just where he wanted him, and Nico found himself losing his mind.</p><p>            <em>I’M MAD. </em></p><p>
  <em>            I’m mad. Will. I’m mad. I’m mad. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>            I’mgoinginsane. </em>
</p><p>And then there was a knock on the door, and the world came crashing down on them.</p><p>            “Will? You gonna be long in there?”</p><p>            It was Austin’s voice, Nico recognized him almost as fast as Will, who froze instantly, Nico’s pert nipple trapped between his teeth. He abruptly dropped Nico onto the floor and began dusting off his clothes frantically.</p><p>            “Ow?” Nico stammered, but was quickly silenced by Will’s hand held firmly over his face.</p><p>            “H-Hey, Austin, you’re uh, you’re back from the party?” Will spoke towards the door, somehow realizing he’d dropped Nico onto the floor, and began fussing over him, trying to pull him up while looking at the door every other second.</p><p>            “Damn party’s still going,” Austin said sound exhausted, “Whatever Stoll had the brilliant idea of starting a food fight, and I got the cake, man. I got cake all over. Hey, you’re not taking a load or anything, right? Can I just pop in? I just need to wash this off real quick – you don’t know what raspberry buttercream feels like in the ear, and trust me, you don’t wanna find out!”</p><p>            Will threw Nico a panicked look, which had Nico on his feet in no time.</p><p>            <em>“Get out of here!” </em>Will hissed at him.</p><p>            <em>“How. The. Fuck?!”</em> Nico mouthed back.</p><p>            Will pointed at the windows, all the way up on the walls, and Nico glared at him with such ferocity he could feel his Underworld-y powers coming into being. He quickly shook his head and punched Will on the chest.      </p><p>            “Will?” Austin asked impatiently. “Dude, I’m seriously coming in.”</p><p>            “Wait!” Will practically yelled. “I’m – I’m not wearing anything!” he looked desperately around, digging into his pockets as if he expected to fish out a time-out card. He looked so utterly disappointed when all that came out was a packet of chewing gum that Nico almost burst out laughing.</p><p>            “I believe, Will Solace, you ain’t got <em>nothing</em> I’ve never seen before,” Austin retorted sounding exasperated.</p><p>            Nico and Will looked at each other in both shock and disbelief.</p><p>            “<em>Shadows</em>,” Nico mouthed, kissing Will through an amused smile.</p><p>            “<em>NO</em>!” Will threatened, pulling Nico by the wrists, but his grasp didn’t hold Nico in place. “<em>No shadow traveling!</em>” he hissed.</p><p>            “Dude, this shit <em>stings!</em> Can I come in or what?”</p><p>            “W-Wait!” Will whimpered, glaring at Nico as he inched closer and closer to one of the shadows cast by the flaming brazier.</p><p>            “<em>Pick you up at five tomorrow,” </em>Nico whispered, pulling at his wrist, dragging Will alongside as he stepped onto a shadow.</p><p>            “DON’T YOU DARE –“ Will yelled, but quickly cleared his throat.</p><p>            “The hell, man. I’ve seen you naked like a billion times, just don’t be jerking of in there and we’ll be good,” said Austin from the other side of the door.</p><p>            Will looked at Nico with as much of a death glare as he could muster.</p><p>            Nico smiled and pulled him in for a final kiss.</p><p>            <em>You can’t pull it off, Will Solace. </em></p><p>
  <em>            You are the sun. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>            I am death. </em>
</p><p><em>            You simply </em>do not know<em> what a death glare is.</em></p><p>And with that thought in mind, he let go of Will’s hand and began melting into the shadows.</p><p>            “Don’t you dare!” Will screamed.</p><p>            “Bye,” Nico saluted, just as he felt himself turn into smoke and vanish.</p><p>            “Remember to rinse!!” he vaguely heard Will’s scream echo in the tunnel of shadows that whipped him back into his own cabin.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello, ya buncha pervs! <br/>If you've read this far, then we are all carved out of the same stone, my lovelies. &lt;3<br/>All jokes aside, we're looking at the end of this show. Next chapter will be the last. <br/>Thanks for sticking with me throughout this craaazy trip. <br/>This has been a 100% self-indulgent thing, hadn't even planned it as a multi-chapter when the idea first hit me, so wah, seriously, if you're still reading, I love you. <br/>And if you are @LadyBoy, @ssshhut_up_meg, @zarzasovvs, @mellowrei, @sherasaidgaywrites or @hi, know that you've kept me on my toes, writing and writing and being all pervy and writing some more. </p><p>Now raise your hands if you think it's Nico's time to shower!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I needed angsty horny Nico and oblivious horny Will. So I wrote this. Now a multi-chapter.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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